Long-term
Effects of Regular Sports Practice on Mortality among the Elderly in a
Community ―From a 14-year Prospective Study―
Takao Suzuki
National Institute for
Longevity Sciences/
Many studies have
investigated the effects of exercises in the elderly and have proven beyond
doubt the physiological and medical benefits of exercise. However, most of the
studies have been obtained from “exercise intervention of a given exercise
intensity administered for a given period of time”. For the elderly, ‘exercises’ generally include physical activities
in daily life, walking and light calisthenics at home, and competitive sports
using tools or facilities such as tennis and swimming. These common exercises may
have different effects from intensive exercise on the prognosis of long-term
survival for the elderly.
We examined the
long-term effect of regular sports practice on mortality by a population-base
prospective study during 14 years period. In this study, we defined regular
sports practice as the engagement in sports usually utilizing specialized
facility or instrument.
As a results,
multivariate analysis on the association between mortality and regular sports
practice after controlling for sex, age, I-ADL score, smoking rate, alcohol
drinking rate, and usual walking speed showed that regular sports practice did
not reduce the risk of death.
However, the elderly subjects who practiced
sports regularly had a significantly faster walking speed compared with
subjects not practicing sports. Even when controlled for sex and age, a
significantly positive association between regular sports practice and walking
speed was observed. In other words, the elderly who can practice sports
regularly walk faster in their daily life, and they may constitute a group of
individuals who are healthier and more vigorous, suggesting the presence of a
strong self-selection bias for practicing regular sports.
Key words: Regular
sports, Mortality, Longitudinal population-based study, Community elderly