Low appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) with limited mobility and poor health outcomes in middle-aged African Americans.

Background: Recent efforts to provide a consensus definition propose that sarcopenia be considered a clinical syndrome associated with the loss of both skeletal muscle mass and muscle function that occurs with aging. Validation of sarcopenia definitions that include both low muscle mass and poor muscle function is needed.

Methods: In the population-based African American Health (AAH) study (N = 998 at baseline/wave 1), muscle mass and mobility were evaluated in a clinical testing center in a subsample of N = 319 persons (ages 52-68) at wave 4 (2004).

Higher C-reactive protein and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor levels are associated with poor physical function and disability: a cross-sectional analysis of a cohort of late middle-aged African Americans.

Background: This cohort of "late middle-aged" African Americans has an excess of disability. We aimed to determine associations of circulating cytokine receptors (sTNFR1, sTNFR2, and sIL-6R) and C-reactive protein (CRP) with disability, physical function, and body composition.

Methods: Stratified sampling of two socioeconomically diverse strata of St Louis, Missouri, occurred in 2000-2001.

Development and validation of a short portable sarcopenia measure in the African American health project.

Background: Poor muscle size and function (sarcopenia) have an important role in the age-associated disability process. However, no commonly accepted index of sarcopenia exists for use in epidemiological studies.

Methods: A cohort of 998 community-dwelling African Americans 49-65 years' old at baseline was used to construct the short portable sarcopenia measure (SPSM).

Cognitive behavioral therapy to promote exercise behavior in older adults: implications for physical therapists.

Although exercise has both physical and psychological benefits, most older adults do not exercise on a regular basis. Physical therapists need to explore ways to encourage sustained commitment. This article proposes that cognitive factors contribute to older adults inactivity and that the self regulation of exercise maintenance model is a means of promoting exercise.