BACKGROUND This study identified demographic and health-related characteristics that were related to mobility limitation in a sample of community-dwelling African Americans. METHODS The sample consisted of 602 community-dwelling African-American men and women ages 48-92 years at study inception. Participants who reported being limited "a lot" or "a little" in climbing one flight of stairs or ...

BACKGROUND Although both obesity and the metabolic syndrome (MetS) are known risk factors for decline in physical function, the joint association of obesity and metabolic alterations with risk of incident mobility limitation is unknown. METHODS Data are from 2,984 women and men aged 70-79 years participating in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study without mobility limitation at basel...

BACKGROUND Although low 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) is prevalent among older adults and is associated with poor physical function, longitudinal studies examining vitamin D status and physical function are lacking. We examined the association between 25(OH)D, parathyroid hormone (PTH), and the onset of mobility limitation and disability over 6 years of follow-up in community-dwelling, initiall...

OBJECTIVES The current Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is based on short-term nitrogen balance studies in young adults and may underestimate the amount needed to optimally preserve physical function in older adults. We examined the association between protein intake and the onset of mobility limitation over 6 years of follow-up in older adults in the Health ABC study. DESIGN P...

Recent evidence suggests that music-based movement (MbM) therapy may be a promising intervention to improve gait and gait-related activities in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, because it naturally combines cognitive movement strategies, cueing techniques, balance exercises and physical activity while focussing on the enjoyment of moving on music instead of the current mobility limitations of...

OBJECTIVE This study examines the association between incident mobility limitation and 4 lifestyle factors: smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, and diet in well-functioning obese (n = 667) and non-obese (n = 2027) older adults. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES Data were from men and women, 70 to 79 years of age from Pittsburgh, PA and Memphis, TN, participating in the Health, Aging and...

In this study, the authors aimed to determine whether higher activity energy expenditure, assessed by using doubly labeled water, was associated with a reduced decline in mobility limitation among 248 older community-dwelling US adults aged 70-82 years enrolled in 1998-1999. Activity energy expenditure was calculated as total energy expenditure (assessed over 2 weeks by using doubly labeled wat...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE hearing impairment is common in older adults and has been implicated in the risk of disability and mortality. We examined the association between hearing impairment and risk of incident disability and all-cause mortality. DESIGN AND SETTING prospective cohort of community-dwelling older men aged 63-85 followed up for disability over 2 years and for all-cause mortality...