Physical, sensory, and cognitive functioning among centenarians: a comparison between the Tokyo and Georgia centenarian studies

Abstract

Functional differences may be due, in part, to different care patterns for the oldest old in the United States when compared to Japan.

Analyzing functional status and its correlates in Chinese centenarians: A cross‐sectional study

“…Our centenarians showed better ADL independence than those in Australia (Richmond et al, 2011), U.S. (Jopp et al, 2016), and Japan (Arai et al, 2014). Walking has been consistently reported as the most impaired item: 66.7% in the Georgia Centenarian Study and 78.0% in the Tokyo Centenarian Study (Martin et al, 2018), but only 33.8% in our study.…”

“…Bathing was another top-ranking difficult task in the Fordham (Jopp et al, 2016) and Tokyo centenarian studies (Martin et al, 2018), but 71.1% of our centenarians were independent. In contrast, transportation is the most impaired activity among our centenarians, similar to Japan and U.S. centenarians (Martin et al, 2018). Together, these findings support the variations in ADL independence among centenarians by countries.…”

“…The study is limited by its cross-sectional design, which prevents the examination of predictors of ADL independence over time. The accuracy of self-reported instruments may be compromised by low cognition and literacy, fatigue, and reduced sensory function (Arosio et al, 2017;Martin et al, 2018;Poon et al, 2007), although informant-based instruments addressed these limitations to some degree (Martin et al, 2013). and physical performance were also correlated with IADL.…”

“…Centenarians have long been regarded as a unique population because their longevity offers an important resource for studying healthy aging (Perls et al, 1999;Richmond, Law, & Kay-Lambkin, 2011) and the complex interactions among multiple pathological changes which concertedly affect the manifestation of clinical symptoms (Tanprasertsuk et al, 2019). While the centenarians studies are limited, the existing findings indicate that ADL independence in centenarians are affected by sensory functioning (Martin et al, 2018), race, age, education, self-reported health (Poon et al, 1992), and living arrangement (Davey et al, 2010;Mao & Han, 2018;Martin et al, 2013;Poulain & Herm, 2016). Cognition was found to affect ADL independence among centenarians in Japan (Arai et al, 2014), but others suggested that maintaining a good level of cognition was not sufficient to achieve IADL independence (Motta et al, 2008) and the prevalence of cognitive impairment in centenarians is reduced (Andersen et al, 2019).…”

Sensory and cognitive functions, gait ability and functionality of older adults

“…In the present study it was found that the dependence for the BADLs is different in older adults with and without alteration of visual acuity, a finding which is consistent with an article on a Mexican population (3) . This is consistent in populations of foreign countries; in Tokyo and Georgia, a study was carried out to find out the predictors of dependency and it was found that vision predicts in up to 60% the alteration in functionality (26) , this is why the evaluation of visual acuity must be present in the medical evaluations that are carried out on older adults to correct the alteration as much as possible and avoid dependencies due to this cause. Likewise, it was observed that the dependence for the BADLs and the IADLs is different in the subjects with and without alteration of the tactile acuity in the feet, this takes coherence since both activities include performing displacement actions (gait, climbing stairs)…”