TY - JOUR
T1 - The impact of physical activity on healthy ageing trajectories
T2 - Evidence from eight cohort studies
AU - Moreno-Agostino, Darío
AU - Daskalopoulou, Christina
AU - Wu, Yu Tzu
AU - Koukounari, Artemis
AU - Haro, Josep Maria
AU - Tyrovolas, Stefanos
AU - Panagiotakos, Demosthenes B.
AU - Prince, Martin
AU - Prina, A. Matthew
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the ATHLOS Consortium for their support and acknowledge the funding and work of people that made possible the cohort studies whose data has been analysed in this paper.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the five-year Ageing Trajectories of Health: Longitudinal Opportunities and Synergies (ATHLOS) project. The ATHLOS project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 635316. The ATHLOS project researchers are grateful for data contribution and funding in the following studies: The Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ALSA): The ALSA study was supported by grants from the South Australian Health Commission, the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund, the US National Institute on Aging (Grant No. AG 08523–02), the Office for the Ageing (SA), Elderly Citizens Homes (SA), the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC 22922), the Premiers Science Research Fund (SA) and the Australian Research Council (DP0879152; DP130100428). The authors gratefully acknowledge the work of the project team at the Flinders Centre for Ageing Studies, Flinders University who provided data for this paper. The Seniors-ENRICA: The Seniors-ENRICA cohort was funded by an unconditional grant from Sanofi-Aventis, the Ministry of Health of Spain, FIS grant 12/ 1166 (State Secretary for R + D and FEDER-FSE) and the Centro de Investiga-ción Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III. The authors gratefully acknowledge the work of the project team at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid who provided data for this paper. The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA): ELSA is supported by the U.S. National Institute of Aging, the National Centre for Social Research, the University College London (UCL) and the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The authors gratefully acknowledge the UK Data Service and UCL who provided data for this paper. Health and Retirement Study (HRS): The HRS study is supported by the National Institute on Aging (grant number NIA U01AG009740) and the Social Security Administration, and is conducted by the University of Michigan. The authors gratefully acknowledge the University of Michigan who provided data for this paper. The Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR): The JSTAR is conducted by the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), the Hitotsubashi University, and the University of Tokyo. The authors gratefully acknowledge the RIETI who provided data for this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s).
PY - 2020/7/16
Y1 - 2020/7/16
N2 - Background: Research has suggested the positive impact of physical activity on health and wellbeing in older age, yet few studies have investigated the associations between physical activity and heterogeneous trajectories of healthy ageing. We aimed to identify how physical activity can influence healthy ageing trajectories using a harmonised dataset of eight ageing cohorts across the world. Methods: Based on a harmonised dataset of eight ageing cohorts in Australia, USA, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, and Europe, comprising 130,521 older adults (M age = 62.81, SD age = 10.06) followed-up up to 10 years (M follow-up = 5.47, SD follow-up = 3.22), we employed growth mixture modelling to identify latent classes of people with different trajectories of healthy ageing scores, which incorporated 41 items of health and functioning. Multinomial logistic regression modelling was used to investigate the associations between physical activity and different types of trajectories adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and other lifestyle behaviours. Results: Three latent classes of healthy ageing trajectories were identified: two with stable trajectories with high (71.4%) or low (25.2%) starting points and one with a high starting point but a fast decline over time (3.4%). Engagement in any level of physical activity was associated with decreased odds of being in the low stable (OR: 0.18; 95% CI: 0.17, 0.19) and fast decline trajectories groups (OR: 0.44; 95% CI: 0.39, 0.50) compared to the high stable trajectory group. These results were replicated with alternative physical activity operationalisations, as well as in sensitivity analyses using reduced samples. Conclusions: Our findings suggest a positive impact of physical activity on healthy ageing, attenuating declines in health and functioning. Physical activity promotion should be a key focus of healthy ageing policies to prevent disability and fast deterioration in health.
AB - Background: Research has suggested the positive impact of physical activity on health and wellbeing in older age, yet few studies have investigated the associations between physical activity and heterogeneous trajectories of healthy ageing. We aimed to identify how physical activity can influence healthy ageing trajectories using a harmonised dataset of eight ageing cohorts across the world. Methods: Based on a harmonised dataset of eight ageing cohorts in Australia, USA, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, and Europe, comprising 130,521 older adults (M age = 62.81, SD age = 10.06) followed-up up to 10 years (M follow-up = 5.47, SD follow-up = 3.22), we employed growth mixture modelling to identify latent classes of people with different trajectories of healthy ageing scores, which incorporated 41 items of health and functioning. Multinomial logistic regression modelling was used to investigate the associations between physical activity and different types of trajectories adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and other lifestyle behaviours. Results: Three latent classes of healthy ageing trajectories were identified: two with stable trajectories with high (71.4%) or low (25.2%) starting points and one with a high starting point but a fast decline over time (3.4%). Engagement in any level of physical activity was associated with decreased odds of being in the low stable (OR: 0.18; 95% CI: 0.17, 0.19) and fast decline trajectories groups (OR: 0.44; 95% CI: 0.39, 0.50) compared to the high stable trajectory group. These results were replicated with alternative physical activity operationalisations, as well as in sensitivity analyses using reduced samples. Conclusions: Our findings suggest a positive impact of physical activity on healthy ageing, attenuating declines in health and functioning. Physical activity promotion should be a key focus of healthy ageing policies to prevent disability and fast deterioration in health.
KW - Data harmonisation
KW - Growth mixture modelling
KW - Health metric
KW - Lifestyle behaviours
KW - Physical activity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088495392&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s12966-020-00995-8
DO - 10.1186/s12966-020-00995-8
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 32677960
AN - SCOPUS:85088495392
SN - 1479-5868
VL - 17
JO - International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
JF - International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
IS - 1
M1 - 92
ER -