Cooper, Rachel, Hardy, Rebecca, Aihie-Sayer, Avan, Ben-Shlomo, Yoav, Birnie, Kate, Cooper, Cyrus, Craig, Leone, Deary, Ian J., Demakakos, Panayotes, Gallacher, John, McNeill, Geraldine, Martin, Richard M., Starr, John M., Steptoe, Andrew and Kuh, Diana (2011) Age and gender differences in physical capability levels from mid-life onwards: The Harmonisation and meta-analysis of data from eight UK cohort studies. PLoS ONE, 6, e27899. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0027899). (PMID:22114723)
Abstract
Using data from eight UK cohorts participating in the Healthy Ageing across the Life Course (HALCyon) research
programme, with ages at physical capability assessment ranging from 50 to 90+ years, we harmonised data on objective
measures of physical capability (i.e. grip strength, chair rising ability, walking speed, timed get up and go, and standing
balance performance) and investigated the cross-sectional age and gender differences in these measures. Levels of physical
capability were generally lower in study participants of older ages, and men performed better than women (for example,
results from meta-analyses (N = 14,213 (5 studies)), found that men had 12.62 kg (11.34, 13.90) higher grip strength than
women after adjustment for age and body size), although for walking speed, this gender difference was attenuated after
adjustment for body size. There was also evidence that the gender difference in grip strength diminished with increasing
age,whereas the gender difference in walking speed widened (p,0.01 for interactions between age and gender in both
cases). This study highlights not only the presence of age and gender differences in objective measures of physical
capability but provides a demonstration that harmonisation of data from several large cohort studies is possible. These
harmonised data are now being used within HALCyon to understand the lifetime social and biological determinants of
physical capability and its changes with age.
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