The objective of this study was to investigate changes in physical activity (PA) between January (before the COVID-19 epidemic) and April (during the COVID-19 epidemic) 2020 in community-dwelling ...older adults in Japan.
Cross-sectional online survey.
From April 23 to 27, 2020, an online survey was completed by 1,600 community-dwelling older adults in Japan.
We assessed the frailty status using the Kihon checklist, and other demographics and asked questions regarding PA at two time points: January and April 2020. We defined the total PA time (minutes) per week based on activity frequency and time.
The study participants' mean age, proportion of women, and prevalence of frailty were 74.0±5.6 years, 50% (n=800), and 24.3% (n=388), respectively. We found a significant decrease in total PA time in April 2020 (median interquartile range (IQR), 180 0 to 420) when compared to January 2020 (median IQR, 245 90 to 480) (P<0.001). We also performed a subgroup analysis according to the frailty category; total PA time significantly decreased in April 2020 when compared to January 2020 for all frailty categories (P<0.001).
In conclusion, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the total PA time in April 2020 significantly decreased compared to that in January 2020 in older adults. This finding may lead to a higher incidence of disability in the near future in older people.
Objectives
The objective of this study was to investigate changes in physical activity (PA) between January (before the COVID-19 epidemic) and April (during the COVID-19 epidemic) 2020 in ...community-dwelling older adults in Japan.
Design
Cross-sectional online survey.
Setting and Subjects
From April 23 to 27, 2020, an online survey was completed by 1,600 community-dwelling older adults in Japan.
Methods
We assessed the frailty status using the Kihon checklist, and other demographics and asked questions regarding PA at two time points: January and April 2020. We defined the total PA time (minutes) per week based on activity frequency and time.
Results
The study participants’ mean age, proportion of women, and prevalence of frailty were 74.0±5.6 years, 50% (n=800), and 24.3% (n=388), respectively. We found a significant decrease in total PA time in April 2020 (median interquartile range (IQR), 180 0 to 420) when compared to January 2020 (median IQR, 245 90 to 480) (P<0.001). We also performed a subgroup analysis according to the frailty category; total PA time significantly decreased in April 2020 when compared to January 2020 for all frailty categories (P<0.001).
Conclusion
In conclusion, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the total PA time in April 2020 significantly decreased compared to that in January 2020 in older adults. This finding may lead to a higher incidence of disability in the near future in older people.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to economic contraction and significant restrictions on society. The shock to the economy could lead to a deterioration of physical health ...outcomes, including dental health. The present study investigated the association between worsened socioeconomic conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and dental pain in Japan. The mediating effects of psychological distress and oral health–related behaviors were also evaluated. Cross-sectional data from the Japan COVID-19 and Society Internet Survey conducted from August to September 2020 (n = 25,482; age range, 15–79 y) were analyzed. Multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to evaluate the independent associations of household income reduction, work reduction, and job loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic with dental pain within a month. Dental pain was reported by 9.8%. Household income reduction, work reduction, and job loss were independently associated with dental pain after adjusting for confounders (odds ratios: 1.42 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.28−1.57, 1.58 95% CI, 1.41−1.76, 2.17 95% CI, 1.64−2.88, respectively). The association related to household income reduction was mediated by psychological distress, postponing dental visits, toothbrushing behavior, and between-meals eating behavior by 21.3% (95% CI, 14.0−31.6), 12.4% (95% CI, 7.2−19.6), 1.5% (95% CI, −0.01 to 4.5), and 9.3% (95% CI, 5.4−15.2), respectively. Our findings showed that worsened socioeconomic conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic deteriorated dental health. Policies that protect income and job loss may reduce dental health problems after the pandemic.
Objectives
The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical activity (PA) and the incidence of frailty among initially non-frail older adults in ...Japan.
Design
A follow-up online survey.
Setting and Subjects
Among the 1,600 baseline online survey participants, 388 adults were already frail, and 275 older adults did not respond to the follow-up survey. Thus, the final number of participants in this study was 937 (follow-up rate: 77.3%).
Methods
We assessed the total PA time at four time points according to the COVID-19 waves in Japan: January 2020 (before the pandemic), April 2020 (during the first wave), August 2020 (during the second wave), and January 2021 (during the third wave). We then investigated the incidence of frailty during a one-year follow-up period (during the pandemic).
Results
The total PA time during the first, second, and third waves of the pandemic decreased from the pre-pandemic PA time by 33.3%, 28.3%, and 40.0%, respectively. In particular, the total PA time of older adults who were living alone and socially inactive decreased significantly: 42.9% (first wave), 50.0% (second wave), and 61.9% (third wave) less than before the pandemic, respectively. Additionally, they were at a significantly higher risk of incident frailty than those who were not living alone and were socially active (adjusted odds ratio: 2.04 95% confidence interval: 1.01–4.10).
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that older adults who live alone and are socially inactive are more likely to experience incident frailty/disability due to decreased PA during the pandemic. Understanding this mechanism may be crucial for maintaining the health status of older adults.
Task-based neuroimaging studies face the challenge of developing tasks capable of equivalently probing reading networks across different age groups. Resting-state fMRI, which requires no specific ...task, circumvents these difficulties. Here, in 25 children (8-14 years) and 25 adults (21-46 years), we examined the extent to which individual differences in reading competence can be related to resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of regions implicated in reading. In both age groups, reading standard scores correlated positively with RSFC between the left precentral gyrus and other motor regions, and between Broca's and Wernicke's areas. This suggests that, regardless of age group, stronger coupling among motor regions, as well as between language/speech regions, subserves better reading, presumably reflecting automatized articulation. We also observed divergent RSFC-behavior relationships in children and adults, particularly those anchored in the left fusiform gyrus (FFG) (the visual word form area). In adults, but not children, better reading performance was associated with stronger positive correlations between FFG and phonology-related regions (Broca's area and the left inferior parietal lobule), and with stronger negative relationships between FFG and regions of the "task-negative" default network. These results suggest that both positive RSFC (functional coupling) between reading regions and negative RSFC (functional segregation) between a reading region and default network regions are important for automatized reading, characteristic of adult readers. Together, our task-independent RSFC findings highlight the importance of appreciating developmental changes in the neural correlates of reading competence, and suggest that RSFC may serve to facilitate the identification of reading disorders in different age groups.
Aim
Phase angle (PhA) can be determined through bioelectrical impedance analysis and is a unique variable for skeletal muscle. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between PhA ...and muscle mass/quality in older adults. In addition, we attempted to determine the cutoff value of PhA for poor muscle function.
Methods
Community-dwelling Japanese older men (n=285, 81.1±7.1 years) and women (n=724, 80.4±6.8 years) participated in this study and were classified into four groups based on the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (normal, presarcopenia, dynapenia, and sarcopenia). We measured PhA using bioelectrical impedance analysis, muscle quantity and quality indicators using ultrasonography, muscle strength, and physical performance and compared them in four groups. We also tried to determine the cutoff value of PhA for poor muscle function.
Results
We found a significant difference in PhA among the four groups in men (P<0.05), and the dynapenia (3.61±0.75°) and sarcopenia groups (3.40±0.74°) showed significantly lower values than the normal group (4.50±0.86°) (P<0.05), but not the presarcopenia group (4.12±0.85°). In women, a significant difference was also observed among the four groups (P<0.05), and the dynapenia (3.41±0.65°) and sarcopenia groups (3.31±0.66°) showed significantly lower measures than the normal group (4.14±0.71°) (P<0.05), but not the presarcopenia group (4.07±0.51°). The receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis indicated the best cutoff value of PhA (men: 4.05°, women: 3.55°) to discriminate sarcopenia and dynapenia from normal and presarcopenia.
Conclusion
These findings suggest that PhA is a useful indicator for muscle function.
This study examined whether the number of teeth contributes to the compression of morbidity, measured as a shortening of life expectancy with disability, an extension of healthy life expectancy, and ...overall life expectancy. A prospective cohort study was conducted. A self-reported baseline survey was given to 126,438 community-dwelling older people aged ≥65 y in Japan in 2010, and 85,161 (67.4%) responded. The onset of functional disability and all-cause mortality were followed up for 1,374 d (follow-up rate = 96.1%). A sex-stratified illness-death model was applied to estimate the adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for 3 health transitions (healthy to dead, healthy to disabled, and disabled to dead). Absolute differences in life expectancy, healthy life expectancy, and life expectancy with disability according to the number of teeth were also estimated. Age, denture use, socioeconomic status, health status, and health behavior were adjusted. Compared with the edentulous participants, participants with ≥20 teeth had lower risks of transitioning from healthy to dead (adjusted HR, 0.58 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.50–0.68 for men and 0.70 95% CI, 0.57–0.85 for women) and from healthy to disabled (adjusted HR, 0.52 95% CI, 0.44–0.61 for men and 0.58 95% CI, 0.49–0.68 for women). They also transitioned from disabled to dead earlier (adjusted HR, 1.26 95% CI, 0.99–1.60 for men and 2.42 95% CI, 1.72–3.38 for women). Among the participants aged ≥85 y, those with ≥20 teeth had a longer life expectancy (men: +57 d; women: +15 d) and healthy life expectancy (men: +92 d; women: +70 d) and a shorter life expectancy with disability (men: –35 d; women: –55 d) compared with the edentulous participants. Similar associations were observed among the younger participants and those with 1 to 9 or 10 to 19 teeth. The presence of remaining teeth was associated with a significant compression of morbidity: older Japanese adults’ life expectancy with disability was compressed by 35 to 55 d within the follow-up of 1,374 d.
This observational, cross-sectional study investigates cortical signatures of developmental dyslexia, particularly from the perspective of behavioral remediation. We employed resting-state fMRI, and ...compared intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) patterns of known reading regions (seeds) among three dyslexia groups characterized by (a) no remediation (current reading and spelling deficits), (b) partial remediation (only reading deficit remediated), and (c) full remediation (both reading and spelling deficits remediated), and a group of age- and IQ-matched typically developing children (TDC) (total N = 44, age range = 7-15 years). We observed significant group differences in iFC of two seeds located in the left posterior reading network - left intraparietal sulcus (L.IPS) and left fusiform gyrus (L.FFG). Specifically, iFC between L.IPS and left middle frontal gyrus was significantly weaker in all dyslexia groups, irrespective of remediation status/literacy competence, suggesting that persistent dysfunction in the fronto-parietal attention network characterizes dyslexia. Additionally, relative to both TDC and the no remediation group, the remediation groups exhibited stronger iFC between L.FFG and right middle occipital gyrus (R.MOG). The full remediation group also exhibited stronger negative iFC between the same L.FFG seed and right medial prefrontal cortex (R.MPFC), a core region of the default network These results suggest that behavioral remediation may be associated with compensatory changes anchored in L.FFG, which reflect atypically stronger coupling between posterior visual regions (L.FFG-R.MOG) and greater functional segregation between task-positive and task-negative regions (L.FFG-R.MPFC). These findings were bolstered by significant relationships between the strength of the identified functional connections and literacy scores. We conclude that examining iFC can reveal cortical signatures of dyslexia with particular promise for monitoring neural changes associated with behavioral remediation.
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