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Associations between muscle strength, spirometric pulmonary function and mobility in healthy older adults

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Abstract

Pathological obstruction in lungs leads to severe decreases in muscle strength and mobility in patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interdependency between muscle strength, spirometric pulmonary functions and mobility outcomes in healthy older men and women, where skeletal muscle and pulmonary function decline without interference of overt disease. A total of 135 69- to 81-year-old participants were recruited into the cross-sectional study, which was performed as a part of European study MyoAge. Full, partial and no mediation models were constructed to assess the interdependency between muscle strength (handgrip strength, knee extension torque, lower extremity muscle power), spirometric pulmonary function (FVC, FEV1 and FEF50) and mobility (6-min walk and Timed Up and Go tests). The models were adjusted for age, sex, total fat mass, body height and site of enrolment. Partial mediation models, indicating both direct and pulmonary function mediated associations between muscle strength and mobility, fitted best to the data. Greater handgrip strength was significantly associated with higher FVC, FEV1 and FEF50 (p < 0.05). Greater muscle power was significantly associated with better performance in mobility tests. Results suggest that decline in mobility with aging may be caused by decreases in both muscle strength and power but also mediated through decreases in spirometric pulmonary function. Future longitudinal studies are warranted to better understand how loss of function and mass of the respiratory muscles will affect pulmonary function among older people and how these changes are linked to mobility decline.

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Acknowledgments

Gerontology Research Center is a joint effort between the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Tampere. The authors thank Tommi Seikkula, MSc., for the valuable and trustworthy work related to the data collection at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

Funding

This study was supported by an unrestricted grant from the seventh framework program MyoAge (HEALTH-2007-2.4.5-10), 050-060-810 Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NCHA)), Estonian Science Foundation (grants # 8736 and # 7823), the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research (grant SF01080114As08) and the Association Française Contre les Myopathies (AFM).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gerontology Research Center, Department of Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, Jyväskylä, Finland

    E. Sillanpää, L. Stenroth, T. Rantanen, T. Törmäkangas & S. Sipilä

  2. Department of Biology of Physical Activity, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    L. Stenroth

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Gerontology and Geriatrics, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    A. Y. Bijlsma & A. B. Maier

  4. Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands

    A. Y. Bijlsma

  5. School of Healthcare Science, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    J. S. McPhee, T. M. Maden-Wilkinson, D. A. Jones & M. V. Narici

  6. School of Graduate Entry to Medicine and Health, Division of Clinical Physiology, University of Nottingham, Derby, UK

    M. V. Narici

  7. Institute of Exercise Biology and Physiotherapy, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    H. Gapeyeva & M. Pääsuke

  8. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Myology Research Center, UMR974 INSERM U974 CNRS FRE 3617 Institut de Myologie, 75013, Paris, France

    Y. Barnouin, J.-Y. Hogrel & G. S. Butler-Browne

  9. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands

    C. G. M. Meskers

  10. Amsterdam Center on Aging, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    A. B. Maier

Authors
  1. E. Sillanpää
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  2. L. Stenroth
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  3. A. Y. Bijlsma
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  4. T. Rantanen
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  5. J. S. McPhee
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  6. T. M. Maden-Wilkinson
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  7. D. A. Jones
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  8. M. V. Narici
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  9. H. Gapeyeva
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  12. J.-Y. Hogrel
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  13. G. S. Butler-Browne
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  14. C. G. M. Meskers
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  15. A. B. Maier
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Correspondence to E. Sillanpää.

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Sillanpää, E., Stenroth, L., Bijlsma, A.Y. et al. Associations between muscle strength, spirometric pulmonary function and mobility in healthy older adults. AGE 36, 9667 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-014-9667-7

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