Running and the Development of Disability with Age

作者：James F. Fries, Gurkirpal Singh, Dianne Morfeld, Helen B. Hubert, Nancy E. Lane, Byron W. Brown · 发表于：Annals of Internal Medicine · 年份：1994 · DOI：10.7326/0003-4819-121-7-199410010-00005 · 被引用次数：132 · 研究领域：Lower Extremity Biomechanics and Pathologies、Balance, Gait, and Falls Prevention、Spinal Cord Injury Research

OBJECTIVE: To determine, by longitudinal study, whether regular vigorous running activity is associated with accelerated, unchanged, or postponed development of disability with increasing age. STUDY DESIGN: 8-year prospective, longitudinal study with yearly assessments. PARTICIPANTS: 451 members of a runners' club and 330 community controls who were initially 50 to 72 years old (also characterized as "ever-runners" [n = 534] and "never-runners" [n = 247], respectively). MEASUREMENTS: The dependent variable was disability as assessed by the Health Assessment Questionnaire and separately validated in these participant cohorts. Covariates included age, sex, body mass index, comorbid conditions, education level, smoking history, alcohol intake, mean blood pressure, initial disability level, family history of arthritis, and radiologic evidence of osteoarthritis of the knee in a subsample. RESULTS: Initially, the runners were leaner, reported joint symptoms less frequently, took fewer medications, had fewer medical problems, and had fewer instances of and less severe disability, suggesting either that the average previous 12 years of running had improved health or that self-selection bias was present. After 8 years of longitudinal study, the differences in initial disability levels (0.026 compared with 0.079; P < 0.001) had steadily increased to 0.071 for runners compared with 0.242 for controls (P < 0.001). The difference was consistent for men and women. The rate of development o...