Construct and predictive validity of a self-reported measure of preclinical mobility limitation.

Objectives: To validate self-reported preclinical mobility limitation concept and self-report assessment method against muscle power and walking speed, and to study the predictive validity of preclinical mobility limitation with respect to future risk of manifest mobility limitation.

Design: Observational prospective cohort study and cross-sectional analysis.

Setting: Research laboratory and community.

Customer-oriented counseling for physical activity in older people: study protocol and selected baseline results of a randomized-controlled trial (ISRCTN 07330512).

The objective of this study is to describe the rationale, design and selected baseline results of a 2-year randomized-controlled trial (RCT) on the effects of physical activity counseling in community-living older people. After a four-phase screening and data-collection process targeting all independently living people in the city center of Jyväskylä, Finland, six hundred and thirty-two 75-81-year-old cognitively intact, sedentary persons who were able to move independently outdoors at least minimally and willing to take part in the RCT were randomized into intervention and control groups. At baseline, over half of the subjects exercised less than two to three times a month and two-thirds were willing to increase their physical activity level.

Underlying factors in the association between depressed mood and mobility limitation in older people.

Background: Depressed mood may either precede mobility limitation or follow from mobility limitation.

Objective: To compare mood status among people with manifest mobility limitation, those with preclinical mobility limitation and those without mobility limitation and investigate factors explaining the association between depressed mood and mobility limitation.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Fall-related injuries among initially 75- and 80-year old people during a 10-year follow-up.

The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence, type, scene and seasonal variation of fall related injuries, and the impact of socio-economic factors, mobility limitation, and the most common diseases on the risk of injurious falls over a 10-year follow-up. Elderly residents of Jyväskylä, Finland, aged initially 75 and 80 years, took part in the study in 1989-1990. The health and functional capacity assessments were carried out at the baseline.

Motor speed and lower extremity strength as predictors of fall-related bone fractures in elderly individuals.

Background And Aims: The purpose of this prospective population-based study was to examine the combined effects of motor speed and knee extension strength on risk of fall-related bone fractures in elderly individuals over a 10-year period.

Methods: Participants were 307 men and women aged 75 or 80 years at baseline, who visited the research laboratory at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Multi-choice motor speed tests and maximal isometric knee extension strength tests were carried out at baseline.