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/ National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology

 

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