Physical activity is associated with improved overall health in those people who survive to older ages, otherwise conceptualised as healthy ageing. Previous studies have examined the effects of ...mid-life physical activity on healthy ageing, but not the effects of taking up activity later in life. We examined the association between physical activity and healthy ageing over 8 years of follow-up.
Participants were 3454 initially disease-free men and women (aged 63.7 ± 8.9 years at baseline) from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a prospective study of community dwelling older adults. Self-reported physical activity was assessed at baseline (2002-2003) and through follow-up. Healthy ageing, assessed at 8 years of follow-up (2010-2011), was defined as those participants who survived without developing major chronic disease, depressive symptoms, physical or cognitive impairment.
At follow-up, 19.3% of the sample was defined as healthy ageing. In comparison with inactive participants, moderate (OR, 2.67, 95% CI 1.95 to 3.64), or vigorous activity (3.53, 2.54 to 4.89) at least once a week was associated with healthy ageing, after adjustment for age, sex, smoking, alcohol, marital status and wealth. Becoming active (multivariate adjusted, 3.37, 1.67 to 6.78) or remaining active (7.68, 4.18 to 14.09) was associated with healthy ageing in comparison with remaining inactive over follow-up.
Sustained physical activity in older age is associated with improved overall health. Significant health benefits were even seen among participants who became physically active relatively late in life.
Synthesising evidence on the long-term vaccine effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines (BNT162b2 Pfizer-BioNTech, mRNA-1273 Moderna, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 AZD1222; Oxford-AstraZeneca, and Ad26.COV2.S Janssen) ...against infections, hospitalisations, and mortality is crucial to making evidence-based pandemic policy decisions.
In this rapid living systematic evidence synthesis and meta-analysis, we searched EMBASE and the US National Institutes of Health's iSearch COVID-19 Portfolio, supplemented by manual searches of COVID-19-specific sources, until Dec 1, 2022, for studies that reported vaccine effectiveness immediately and at least 112 days after a primary vaccine series or at least 84 days after a booster dose. Single reviewers assessed titles, abstracts, and full-text articles, and extracted data, with a second reviewer verifying included studies. The primary outcomes were vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infections, hospitalisations, and mortality, which were assessed using three-level meta-analytic models. This study is registered with the National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools, review 473.
We screened 16 696 records at the title and abstract level, appraised 832 (5·0%) full texts, and initially included 73 (0·4%) studies. Of these, we excluded five (7%) studies because of critical risk of bias, leaving 68 (93%) studies that were extracted for analysis. For infections caused by any SARS-CoV-2 strain, vaccine effectiveness for the primary series reduced from 83% (95% CI 80-86) at baseline (14-42 days) to 62% (53-69) by 112-139 days. Vaccine effectiveness at baseline was 92% (88-94) for hospitalisations and 91% (85-95) for mortality, and reduced to 79% (65-87) at 224-251 days for hospitalisations and 86% (73-93) at 168-195 days for mortality. Estimated vaccine effectiveness was lower for the omicron variant for infections, hospitalisations, and mortality at baseline compared with that of other variants, but subsequent reductions occurred at a similar rate across variants. For booster doses, which covered mostly omicron studies, vaccine effectiveness at baseline was 70% (56-80) against infections and 89% (82-93) against hospitalisations, and reduced to 43% (14-62) against infections and 71% (51-83) against hospitalisations at 112 days or later. Not enough studies were available to report on booster vaccine effectiveness against mortality.
Our analyses indicate that vaccine effectiveness generally decreases over time against SARS-CoV-2 infections, hospitalisations, and mortality. The baseline vaccine effectiveness levels for the omicron variant were notably lower than for other variants. Therefore, other preventive measures (eg, face-mask wearing and physical distancing) might be necessary to manage the pandemic in the long term.
Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality. COPD is also associated with high levels of psychological distress, which has been ...linked with higher exacerbation rates. At a recent American Thoracic Society conference symposium titled "Depression and Obstructive Lung Disease: State of the Science and Future Directions" held in 2010 in New Orleans, clinicians and researchers identified a number of important research priorities related to psychiatric comorbidities, including the need to better understand their impact on COPD outcomes, such as exacerbations. This article reviews the current literature and quantifies the prospective impact of anxiety and depression on exacerbation risk in patients with COPD. The limitations of the existing literature and the perspectives for future research are addressed.
Summary Introduction Intranasal oxytocin attenuates cortisol levels during social stress inductions. However, no research to date has documented the dose–response relation between intranasal oxytocin ...administration and cortisol, and researchers examining intranasal oxytocin have not examined the cortisol response to physical stress. We therefore examined the effects of 24IU and 48IU of intranasal oxytocin on the cortisol response to vigorous exercise. Method Seventeen males participated in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, and within-subject experiment. Participants engaged in vigorous exercise for 60 min following the administration of placebo or intranasal oxytocin on three occasions. Saliva samples and mood ratings were collected at eight intervals across each session. Results Salivary cortisol concentrations changed over time, peaking after 60 min of exercise (quadratic: F (1,16) = 7.349, p = .015, partial η2 = .32). The 24IU dose of oxytocin attenuated cortisol levels relative to placebo ( F (1,16) = 4.496, p = .05, partial η2 = .22) and the 48IU dose, although the latter fell just short of statistical significance ( F (1,16) = 3.054, p = .10, partial η2 = .16). There was no difference in the cortisol response to exercise in participants who were administered 48IU of intranasal oxytocin relative to placebo. Intranasal oxytocin had no effect on mood. Conclusion This is the first study to demonstrate that the effect of intranasal oxytocin on salivary cortisol is dose-dependent, and that intranasal oxytocin attenuates cortisol levels in response to physical stress. Future research using exogenous oxytocin will need to consider the possibility of dose–response relations.
Physical activity has been shown to be beneficial for the prevention and management of hypertension. In the general population, physical activity has been shown to decrease mortality.
The purpose of ...this systematic review was to identify and synthesize the literature examining the impact of physical activity on mortality in patients with high blood pressure (BP).
An extensive search was conducted by two independent authors using Medline, Embase and Cochrane Library electronic databases (between 1985 and January 2012) and manual search from the reference list of relevant articles. Inclusion criteria were as follows: longitudinal design with minimum 1-year follow-up; hypertensive status of the cohort was indicated; and BP, physical activity, and mortality were measured.
Six articles evaluating a combined total of 48 ,448 men and 47 ,625 women satisfied the inclusion criteria. Cardiovascular and/or all-cause mortality were shown to be inversely related to physical activity in all studies. For example, patients with high BP who participated in any level of physical activity had a reduced risk (by 16-67%) of cardiovascular mortality, whereas a greater than two-fold increase in risk of mortality was noted in nonactive individuals. However, activity classification and parameters, such as frequency, duration, intensity, and volume, as well as BP status, were not consistent across studies.
Regular physical activity is beneficial for reducing mortality in patients with high BP. More research is needed to establish the impact of specific kinds of physical activity and whether any differences exist between sexes.
PDF
