OBJECTIVES. This study examined the association between recreational physical activity among physically capable older adults and functional status, incidence of selected chronic conditions, and mortality over 3 and 6 years. METHODS. Data are from three sites of the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly. RESULTS. A high level of recreational physical activity reduced the likelihood of mortality over both 3 and 6 years. Moderate to high activity reduced the risk of physical impairments over 3 years; this effect diminishes after 6 years. A consistent relationship between activity and new myocardial infarction or stroke or the incidence of diabetes or angina was not found after 3 or 6 years. CONCLUSIONS. Findings suggest that physical activity offers benefits to physically capable older adults, primarily in reducing the risk of functional decline and mortality. Future work must use more objective and quantifiable measures of activity and assess changes in activity levels over time.
Purpose
This study examined associations of neighborhood social cohesion, violence and aesthetic quality with depressive symptoms amongst 2619 healthy adults aged 45-84 years enrolled in the Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.
Methods
Neighborhood characteristics were estimated by surveying a separate sample of area residents. Measures of aesthetic environment, social cohesion, and violence were combined into a summary score with increasing scores indicating more favorable environments. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. Marginal maximum likelihood estimation was used to assess associations of neighborhood characteristics with CES-D score at baseline and with the odds of developing incident depression (CES-D score ≥16 or use of antidepressants) over a 4-5 year follow-up among persons with CESD<16 at baseline. Models were adjusted for age, income, education, and race/ethnicity.
Results
Lower levels of social cohesion and aesthetic quality and higher levels of violence were associated with higher mean CES-D scores in men and women (p-value for trend <0.01, adjusted mean difference in CES-D per 1 SD increase in summary score -1.01 (95% CI: -1.85, -0.17) and -1.08 (-1.88, -0.28) in men and women respectively). Associations of neighborhood characteristics with incident depression were in the expected direction for women but confidence intervals were wide (OR of incident depression 0.89 (0.63, 1.26)). No association was seen for men (OR=0.96 (0.74, 1.25)). Conclusions: Neighborhood social cohesion, aesthetic quality and violence are associated with the presence of depressive symptoms in residents.
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