December 2009  Get out of the house and stay active! lder people who stay active socially are more likely to retain their physical mobility as well, according to researchers at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Their study found that more socially involved seniors even walk faster than those who don’t get out as much. Aron S. Buchman, M.D., associate professor of neurological sciences, and his colleagues studied 906 healthy adults whose average age was 79.5. At the start of the project, the participants were given points based on how often they engaged in activities such as going to church or sporting events, eating out in restaurants, volunteering, traveling, visiting relatives and playing bingo. Scores ranged from 1.0 to a high of 4.17. The average was 2.6. Then the researchers tracked the participants’ motor function once a year for 11 years. Here are some of their findings: SCORING JUST ONE POINT BELOW AVERAGE on the “social activity scale” lowers your motor function as if you were five years older. In other words, an inactive 67-year-old would function more like a 72-year-old. EACH POINT BELOW THE AVERAGE SCORE represented a third more rapid decline in the person’s overall physical mobility. This greater rate of decline was consistent with much higher risks of death and disability, compared to those whose social activity was “average.” THE SENIORS WHO WERE THE MOST SOCIALLY ACTIVE were also the fastest walkers (top 10 percent of walking gait speed) while the least socially active walked the slowest (bottom 10 percent of walking gait speed). OF COURSE, A PERSON’S MOBILITY IS DETERMINED by many other factors such as joint pain, depression, disability and vascular disease. But even when those other factors were weighed in as part of the analysis, the association between social activity and motor decline held up. “It’s not just running around a track that’s good for you,” says Dr. Buchman. The social dimension of older people’s activities seems to be very important. “Our data raise the possibility that we can slow motor decline and possibly delay its adverse health outcomes by supporting social engagement—a relatively low-cost solution to a very large public problem,” he says.   —Adapted from the Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter newsletter   Get out of the house and stay active! (click) Studies link lack of sleep to more colds (click)   Front Page Feature | Interchange | Research Review | Elder Issues | Parenting On the Job | We Recommend | A Healthy You | Home

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