Background
In longevity societies, one of the most serious social issues is sarcopenia and/or frailty. Preventing them is important for maintaining independence and quality of life in the older ...population. This study investigated the effect of a self‐monitoring comprehensive geriatric intervention programme (CGIP) on physical function and muscle size in community‐dwelling older adults. We compared the effects of a CGIP using weekly class‐styled (CS) sessions and a home‐based (HB) programme.
Methods
The 526 participants were randomized into one of two groups (CS 251, HB 275) based on their residential districts. We conducted a 12 week CGIP, which consisted of low‐load resistance exercise, physical activity increments, oral function improvements, and a nutritional guide. All participants were encouraged to attend two 90 min lectures that included instructions on the CGIP. They were provided with exercise materials (triaxial‐accelerometers/pedometers, ankle weights, and elastic bands) and diary logs. The CS group attended 90 min weekly sessions and independently executed the programme on other days, whereas the HB group only received instructions on how to execute the programme. Physical functions, such as knee extension strength (KES), normal and maximum walking speed, the timed up‐and‐go test, and anterior thigh muscle thickness (MT), were measured and analysed using intention‐to‐treat analysis before and after the 12 week intervention.
Results
Of the 526 participants identified, 517 (CS 243 age 74.0 ± 5.4 women 57.2%, HB 274 age 74.0 ± 5.6 women 58.8%) were enrolled. Nine (CS 8, HB 1) were excluded from the analysis because they did not participate in the pre‐intervention measurements. Both interventions significantly improved KES (CS 18.5%, HB 10.6%), normal walking speed (CS 3.7%, HB 2.8%), and MT (CS 3.2%, HB 3.5%). Greater improvement of KES was observed in the CS group (P = 0.003). Maximum walking speed (CS 4.7%, HB 1.8%; P = 0.001) and timed up‐and‐go (CS −4.7%, HB −0.2%; P < 0.001) significantly improved in the CS group only.
Conclusions
The intervention was effective in preventing sarcopenia and/or frailty. Most physical functions and MT improved after both interventions. The HB intervention is cost‐effective and may help prevent sarcopenia and/or frailty in the large older population.
The Kyoto-Kameoka Study was launched in 2011-2012 to identify the associations among food intake, nutritional status, physical activity, oral function, quality of life or social capital, the use of ...long-term care insurance (LTCI) system, and healthy lifespan in community-dwelling older people as a part of the World Health Organization Safe Community program.
A prospective cohort study, reporting baseline demographics (cross-sectional data).
We conducted 2 mailed self-administered questionnaire surveys; one is a complete population survey with a comprehensive survey of needs in the sphere of daily life (NSDL) that included 2 different frailty indexes, the Kihon Checklist (KCL) and the Fried phenotype, socioeconomic status, general and psychological health, and social relationships; followed by the more detailed Health and Nutrition Survey. A slightly modified NSDL survey was conducted again in 2013. Survival time, LTCI certification, and medical and long-term care costs after the baseline survey will be followed.
Of 18,231 NSDL questionnaires distributed, 13,294 people responded (response rate: 72.92%; mean age 73.7 ± 6.4 and 75.1 ± 7.2 years for men and women, respectively; 12,054 people without and 1240 with LTCI certification). In people without LTCI, the proportion of robust, prefrail, and frail were 30.3%, 59.8%, and 9.9% in men and 25.3%, 64.7%, and 10.0% in women, according to the Fried index. The proportion of frail people as defined by KCL ≥7 was 30.8% in men and 33.3% in women.
The study is the first to document frailty prevalence using both Fried and KCL measures with a complete city population survey among older Japanese in the community as a part of World Health Organization Safe Community program. The study is expected to provide valuable evidence of the effects of lifestyle habits on long-term care prevention and healthy life span.
It is difficult to obtain detailed information on non-participants in physical and health examination checkups in community-based epidemiological studies. We investigated the characteristics of ...non-participants in a physical and health examination checkup for older adults in a nested study from the Japanese Kyoto-Kameoka Longitudinal Study.
We approached a total of 4831 people aged ≥65 years in 10 randomly selected intervention regions. Participants responded to a mail-based population survey on needs in the sphere of daily life to encourage participation in a free face-to-face physical checkup examination; 1463 participants (706 men, 757 women) participated in the physical checkup. A multiple logistic regression model was performed to investigate the adjusted odds ratios (aOR) of non-participation based on sociodemographic status apart from psychological and physiological frailty as assessed by the validated Kihon Checklist.
There was a significant, inverse relationship between non-participation and frequently spending time alone among individuals who lived with someone or other family structure (aOR = 0.53, standard error SE 0.08 in men, aOR = 0.66, SE 0.09 in women). Very elderly (over 80 years old) women, poorer health consciousness and current smoking in both sexes and poor self-rated health in men, were significantly related to higher non-participation rates. In both sexes, individuals who did not participate in community activities were significantly more likely to be non-participants than individuals who did (aOR = 1.94, SE 0.23 in men, aOR = 3.29, SE 0.39 in women). Having low IADL and physical functioning scores were also associated with higher rates of non-participation.
Health consciousness and lack of community activity participation were predictors of non-participation in a physical checkup examination among older adults. In addition, lower IADL and physical functioning/strength were also predictors of non-participation. On the contrary, older inhabitants living with someone tended to participate in the physical checkup examination for social interchange when they were frequently alone in the household. This study suggests the importance of considering aging especially for women and poor sociodemographic background and physical frailty for both sexes so that older people can access health programs without difficulty.
UMIN000008105 . Registered 26 April 2012. Retrospectively registered.
Many previous studies have reported that fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with a reduced risk of various disease, but whether or not their consumption is associated with the oral ...health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) is unclear. The objective of this study was to examine the association between the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption and the OHRQoL in elderly subjects by sex.
We analyzed cross-sectional data from a population-based Kyoto-Kameoka Study in 2012 of 3112 men and 3439 women (age ≥ 65 years). The frequencies of fruit and vegetable consumption were assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. We evaluated the OHRQoL using the General Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI), a self-reported measure designed to assess the oral health problems in old adults.
After adjusting for age, body mass index, alcohol, smoking, education, socioeconomic status, history of disease, medication use, mobility disability, and total energy intake, a higher frequency of combined fruit and vegetable consumption showed a significant positive association with the GOHAI score in both men and women (
-trend < 0.001 in both sexes). These associations remained significant after adjustment for poor mastication and denture use (
-trend all < 0.05 in both sexes). We observed a significant positive association even when the frequencies of fruit or vegetable consumption were analyzed separately (all
-trend < 0.05 in both sexes).
A higher frequency of fruit and/or vegetable consumption independently showed a strong positive association with the OHRQoL in both men and women. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.
This study investigated the variations of perspectives of junior high school students who had participated in Smartphone Summit for appropriate usage of the Internet and smartphones. Smartphone ...Summit is an educational project designed to empower junior high school students to advocate appropriate usage of the Internet and smartphones among older, same-age, and younger peers, within school communities and society as a whole. The participants were 26 students (7th and 8th grade) from 18 junior high schools in Okayama, a western Japanese city. In the project, the participants discussed pros and cons of the Internet and smartphones, and presented their ideas concerning possible activities to encourage their classmates to use the Internet and smartphones in appropriate ways with the help of various adult experts. A questionnaire was administered to measure the participants' evaluation of their own and their classmates' present smartphone usage as well as anticipated future smartphone usage. Results showed that the participants evaluated their own usage as more appropriate than that of their classmates and expected that future usage would be better for both themselves and their classmates than at present. Furthermore, the participants expected their classmates' usage will change more significantly than their own because their classmates' current usage seems relatively inappropriate and there would be larger room for improvement. From the analysis of patterns of participants' impact expectation toward their peers, it was found that there were three types of perspectives: moderate, relatively lower, and relatively higher evaluation. Future research should focus on the factors influencing the participants' perspectives.
The purpose of this study is to consider how to better guide consumer education in home economics courses. The current state of high school students' consumer awareness and consumer knowledge was ...surveyed. The results show that high school students' consumer awareness is strong, but that their consumer knowledge is inadequate. There was no correlation found between the consumer awareness and consumer knowledge of the high school students surveyed. Also, regarding consumption, this study shows that high school students are impulsive and possess consumer literacy, two aspects of consumer awareness. It was found that high school girls especially, have a high level of impulsivity. Also, a correlation was found between impulsivity and interest in non-brick-and-mortar retailers such as “mail order shopping" and “internet shopping." In closing, it was suggested that it is necessary to examine the current classroom method by which consumer awareness and consumer knowledge are taught in order to find a way to increase both consumer awareness and consumer knowledge. It was also suggested that guidance with regard to non-brick-and-mortar retailers may also be necessary.
Skeletal muscles contain a large volume of water that is classified into intracellular (ICW) and extracellular (ECW) water fractions. Nuclear magnetic resonance-based biomarkers suggest that ...increased water T2 heterogeneities, as well as elevated water T2 relaxation in the quadriceps occurs in the elderly when compared with young adults. However, nuclear magnetic resonance is difficult to apply to a large-scale study or a clinical setting for sarcopenia and frailty screening. Segmental bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy is a unique tool used to assess the segmental ratio of ECW/ICW in the limbs. We evaluated 405 community-living people aged between 65 and 90 years. ECW and ICW in the upper legs were assessed by segmental bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy. Isometric knee extension strength, gait speed, and skeletal muscle mass were measured. Thigh ECW/ICW was negatively correlated with knee extension strength and gait speed (r = -.617 and -.431, respectively, p < .001) and increased with age (p < .001). Thigh ECW/ICW was a significant predictor of knee extension strength and gait speed independent of age, sex, body mass index, and skeletal muscle mass. Relative expansion of ECW against ICW in the thigh muscles is a factor in decreased muscle quality and a biomarker of muscle aging.
This study investigates whether monologue-like tweets are monologues. A questionnaire targeting undergraduate students was conducted three times (in December 2012 (n=240), February–April 2015 (n=92), ...and January 2016 (n=134) ). As a result, the frequency of monologue-like tweets was related to private speech tendency in the sample from 2012 and social speech tendency in the sample from 2016. Furthermore, with every year, the number of people who answered “taking notes” as a substitute for monologue-like tweets decreased, while that of persons answering “telling others” increased. These results suggest that the role of monologue-like tweets has changed from “private speech” to “social speech.”
It is well known that loss of muscle mass (quantitative change) is a major change that occurs with aging. Qualitative changes in skeletal muscle, such as increased intramuscular fat, also occur as ...one ages. Enhanced echo intensity (EI) on ultrasonography images of skeletal muscle is believed to reflect muscle quality. Recent studies evaluating the quality of skeletal muscle using computer-aided gray scale analysis showed that EI is associated with muscle strength independently of age or muscle size in middle-aged and elderly women. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether muscle quality based on EI is associated with muscle strength independently of muscle size for elderly men.
A total of 184 elderly men (65-91 years) living independently in Kyoto, Japan, participated in this study. The EI, muscle thickness (MT), and subcutaneous fat thickness (FT) of the anterior compartment of the right thigh were determined by assessing ultrasonography images. The maximum isometric torque of knee extension at a knee angle of 90° was measured.
The EI showed a significant negative correlation with muscle strength (r = -0.333, P < 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that the MT and EI of the knee extensor muscle were independently associated with maximum isometric knee extension strength. Even when partial correlation analysis was performed with age, height, weight, and FT as control variables, EI was still significantly correlated with muscle strength.
The results of this study indicate that aging-related changes in muscle quality contribute to diminishing muscle strength. Ultrasonography is a low-cost, easily accessible, and safe method suitable for the assessment of EI as an index of muscle quality.
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