Associations of Usual Pace and Complex Task Gait Speeds With Incident Mobility Disability.

Background/objectives: To assess whether gait speed under complex conditions predicts long-term risk for mobility disability as well as or better than usual-pace gait speed.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study.

Setting/participants: Subsample of Health Aging and Body Composition study with follow-up from 2002 to 2003 to 2010 to 2011, including 337 community-dwelling adults (mean age = 78.

Complex Walking Tasks and Risk for Cognitive Decline in High Functioning Older Adults.

Background: Performance on complex walking tasks may provide a screen for future cognitive decline.

Objective: To identify walking tasks that are most strongly associated with subsequent cognitive decline.

Methods: Community-dwelling older adults with Modified Mini-Mental State (3MS) >85 at baseline (n = 223; mean age = 78.

Testing the Independence of Multiple Personality Factors in Relation to Health Among Community-Dwelling Older Men.

Objective: We assessed associations between specific personality factors and health, and tested whether specific personality factors were related to health outcomes independent of each other.

Method: We performed cross-sectional analyses of personality and health among a sample of community-dwelling older men (n = 613, M age = 81.4, SD = 5.

Peripheral nerve function and lower extremity muscle power in older men.

Objective: To assess whether sensorimotor peripheral nerve function is associated with muscle power in community-dwelling older men.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study with 2.3±0.

Total inward leakage measurement of particulates for N95 filtering facepiece respirators--a comparison study.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) certified particulate respirators need to be properly fit tested before use to ensure workers' respiratory protection. However, the effectiveness of American National Standards Institute-/Occupational Safety and Health Administration (ANSI-/OSHA)-accepted fit tests for particulate respirators in predicting actual workplace protection provided to workers is lacking. NIOSH addressed this issue by evaluating the fit of half-mask particulate filtering respirators as a component of a program designed to add total inward leakage (TIL) requirements for all respirators to Title 42 Code of Federal Regulations Part 84.

Associations of openness and conscientiousness with walking speed decline: findings from the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to explore the associations between openness to experience and conscientiousness, two dimensions of the five-factor model of personality, and usual gait speed and gait speed decline.

Method: Baseline analyses were conducted on 907 men and women aged 71-82 years participating in the Cognitive Vitality substudy of the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study. The longitudinal analytic sample consisted of 740 participants who had walking speed assessed 3 years later.

Personality and reduced incidence of walking limitation in late life: findings from the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study.

Objectives: To examine the association between openness to experience and conscientiousness and incident reported walking limitation.

Method: The study population consisted of 786 men and women aged 71-81 years (M = 75 years, SD = 2.7) participating in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition-Cognitive Vitality Substudy.

Impact of three biological decontamination methods on filtering facepiece respirator fit, odor, comfort, and donning ease.

The objective of this study was to determine if ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI), moist heat incubation (MHI), or microwave-generated steam (MGS) decontamination affects the fitting characteristics, odor, comfort, or donning ease of six N95 filtering facepiece respirator (FFR) models. For each model, 10 experienced test subjects qualified for the study by passing a standard OSHA quantitative fit test. Once qualified, each subject performed a series of fit tests to assess respirator fit and completed surveys to evaluate odor, comfort, and donning ease with FFRs that were not decontaminated (controls) and with FFRs of the same model that had been decontaminated.

Gait speed and survival in older adults.

Context: Survival estimates help individualize goals of care for geriatric patients, but life tables fail to account for the great variability in survival. Physical performance measures, such as gait speed, might help account for variability, allowing clinicians to make more individualized estimates.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between gait speed and survival.

Familial resemblance and shared latent familial variance in recurrent fall risk in older women.

Background: A possible familial component to fracture risk may be mediated through a genetic liability to fall recurrently.

Methods: Our analysis sample included 186 female sibling-ships (n=401) of mean age 71.9 yr (SD=5.

Sensory and motor peripheral nerve function and lower-extremity quadriceps strength: the health, aging and body composition study.

Objectives: To determine whether sensory and motor nerve function is associated cross-sectionally with quadriceps or ankle dorsiflexion strength in an older community-based population.

Design: Cross-sectional analyses within a longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: Two U.

Greater adipose tissue infiltration in skeletal muscle among older men of African ancestry.

Context: There is substantial variability across ethnic groups in the predisposition to obesity and associated metabolic abnormalities. Skeletal muscle fat has been identified as an important depot that increases with aging and may contribute to the development of diabetes.

Objective: We tested whether men of African ancestry have greater calf intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT), compared to Caucasian men, and whether IMAT is associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Positive affect and incidence of frailty in elderly women caregivers and noncaregivers: results of Caregiver-Study of Osteoporotic Fractures.

Objectives: To determine whether positive affect is associated with a lower incidence of frailty over 2 years in elderly community-dwelling women and to test the stress-buffering hypothesis by evaluating whether these associations differed in caregivers and noncaregivers.

Design: Prospective cohort study with three annual interviews conducted in four U.S.

Association of lower limb cutaneous sensitivity with gait speed in the elderly: the health ABC study.

Objective: To examine the association of fast-adapting receptor-mediated vibrotactile sensitivity and slow-adapting receptor-mediated pressure sensitivity with self-selected usual gait speed and gait speed over a challenging narrow (20 cm wide) course.

Design: Participants from the population-based older cohort of the Health ABC study were included (n = 1721; age: 76.4 +/- 2.

The relationship of reduced peripheral nerve function and diabetes with physical performance in older white and black adults: the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study.

Objective: Poor peripheral nerve function is prevalent in diabetes and older populations, and it has great potential to contribute to poor physical performance.

Research Design And Methods: Cross-sectional analyses were done for the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) Study participants (n = 2,364; 48% men; 38% black; aged 73-82 years). Sensory and motor peripheral nerve function in legs/feet was assessed by 10- and 1.

Diabetes-related complications, glycemic control, and falls in older adults.

Objective: Older adults with type 2 diabetes are more likely to fall, but little is known about risk factors for falls in this population. We determined whether diabetes-related complications or treatments are associated with risk of falls in older diabetic adults.

Research Design And Methods: In the Health, Aging, and Body Composition cohort of well-functioning older adults, participants reported falls in the previous year at annual visits.

Body mass index and mortality among older breast cancer survivors in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures.

Background: Breast cancer survival is inversely related to body mass index (BMI), but previous studies have not included large numbers of older women. This study investigated the association between BMI and mortality after breast cancer diagnosis in a cohort of older Caucasian women enrolled in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures.

Methods: All women were age >or=65 at study entry (N = 533).

Multitasking: association between poorer performance and a history of recurrent falls.

Objectives: To examine the association between poorer performance on concurrent walking and reaction time and recurrent falls.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis.

Setting: Community.

Incident fall risk and physical activity and physical performance among older men: the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study.

Physical activity and physical performance have been linked to fall risk in the elderly. The authors examined the relation between physical activity and physical performance with incident falls in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study, a large prospective cohort study of 5,995 community-dwelling men in the United States at least 65 years of age. The authors also examined what types of activities are associated with falling.

Ethnic differences in the frequency and circumstances of falling in older community-dwelling women.

Objectives: To examine ethnic differences in fall rates and fall circumstances in older community-dwelling Caucasian and African-American women.

Design: Prospective analysis of incident falls and a nested retrospective analysis of fall circumstances over 5.7 years.

Reciprocal influence of concurrent walking and cognitive testing on performance in older adults.

This study investigated how cognitive and walking performance are influenced when performed concurrently in older adults and what factors are associated with poorer dual-task responses. Using a dual-task study design, 217 subjects aged 74-85 years completed three information processing test conditions--(1) no test; (2) push-button simple reaction-time; and (3) visual-spatial decision reaction-time; and three walking test conditions--(1) seated; (2) walking over a 20m straight course; and (3) walking over 20m with a turn. Push-button and visual-spatial reaction-times increased approximately 21% and 6%, respectively, while walking compared to sitting (p<0.

Hearing sensitivity and the risk of incident falls and fracture in older women: the study of osteoporotic fractures.

Purpose: To determine if age-related hearing loss may be related to bone health. Decreased vestibular function has been associated with hearing loss. We hypothesized that hearing loss would be related to an increased risk of falling and osteoporotic fracture in 6480 women aged 65 years or older enrolled in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures.

Is social integration associated with the risk of falling in older community-dwelling women?

Background: Social integration may lead to social support and influence that may in turn protect older community-dwelling adults from falls.

Methods: We examined incident falls over 3 years across quartiles of social integration scores in 6692 Caucasian women enrolled in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (mean age = 77 +/- 5 years). Social integration was assessed using family networks, friendship networks, and interdependence scores.