Background Balance and mobility impairments are important modifiable risk factors associated with falls in older people. Purpose To investigate how different functional fitness components relate to balance and mobility, after controlling for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and different physical activity (PA) domains. Methods This representative cross-sectional study included 802 individuals, 401 males and 401 females (69.8 ± 5.6 years) from Madeira, Portugal. The Fullerton Advance Balance (FAB) scale was used to assess balance. Mobility in terms of gait velocity, cadence, stride length, and gait stability ratio (GSR) were assessed using the 50-foot Walk test. PA was assessed through a face-to-face interview using the Baecke questionnaire, and functional fitness was assessed with Senior Fitness tests (strength, flexibility, and aerobic endurance). Results Balance and mobility were negatively associated with age and BMI, and positively related to PA and functional fitness. Moreover, male presented better performance in balance and mobility. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that functional fitness explained the highest amount of variance in balance and all mobility parameters (over and above age, sex, BMI, and PA). Specifically, entering functional fitness components significantly increased explained variance in FAB (+19%), gait velocity (+25%), cadence (+15%), stride length (+9%), and GSR (+ 31%). In these models, aerobic endurance consistently had the strongest contribution. Conclusion Strength, flexibility, and especially aerobic endurance, over and above non-modifiable variables like age and sex, are crucial for maintaining or improving balance and mobility and, thereby, prevent falls in older people.

L’assistance formelle à domicile est devenue une pratique de plus en plus répandue dans le monde occidental. Tôt ou tard, elle finit par constituer une des conditions du maintien à domicile dans la vieillesse : mais qu’en est-il de l’agency des personnes âgées lorsque, face aux pertes typiques du grand âge, celles-ci doivent faire appel à des services et à des individus étrangers à leur chez-soi ? Les entretiens menés avec des individus de 80 ans et plus vivant dans une région de Suisse montrent que leur rôle à ce sujet, s’il est parfois mis à mal par des contraintes, est loin d’être marginal. Sa compréhension demande une considération du parcours de vie et des ressources de l’individu, ainsi que des contextes dans lesquels il est inséré. Le type de service – aide domestique ou soin personnel, aide publique ou privée – a aussi une influence, de même que leur mode d’organisation et le travail des soignants qui y opèrent.

Le début de l’âge adulte est souvent caractérisé par une phase de surmortalité. On ignore encore si cette augmentation momentanée du risque de décès est le produit de forces biologiques ou contextuelles, ni si cette menace concerne uniformément tous les individus d’une même cohorte. Grâce à un ensemble de données unique incluant tous les individus vivant en Suisse nés entre 1975 et 1979, des taux différentiels de mortalité par âge de 10 à 34 ans sont calculés. Certains facteurs de risque agissent avec une intensité variable qui suit une évolution similaire à la forme du risque général. Ces résultats suggèrent que les facteurs socioéconomiques de mortalité expliquent au moins en partie la surmortalité des jeunes adultes. La division de la cohorte en plusieurs sous-populations représentant différents niveaux de vulnérabilité montre que si une minorité de jeunes Suisses connaissent cet excès temporaire de mortalité, ce n’est pas le cas pour tous les groupes d’individus. Dans l’ensemble, les résultats indiquent qu’un contexte social favorable compense le stress associé à la transition vers l’âge adulte et permet d’éviter la phase de risque accru de décès durant cette période de la vie.

Previous research links contemplative practices, such as meditation, with stress reduction. However, little is known about the psychological mechanisms underlying this relationship. This study compares the physiological stress response (reactivity and recovery) measured by changes in salivary cortisol, heart rate, heart rate variability, and the associated stress-related ratings in long-term meditation practitioners (N = 29) and age- and sex- matched meditation naïve controls (N = 26). The participants were administered the Trier Social Stress Test in its active and placebo versions. The results demonstrated that long-term meditation practitioners had faster cortisol recovery from stress, and experienced less shame and higher self-esteem after the exposure to social-evaluative threat. In addition, long-term meditation practitioners scored higher on adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, such as acceptance and positive reappraisal, and lower on maladaptive ones, such as catastrophizing. The cognitive emotion regulation strategy of acceptance mediated the relationship between meditation practice and cortisol recovery. These results suggest that meditation practice is associated with faster recovery from stress due to the employment of adaptive emotion regulation strategy of acceptance, delineating a pathway underlying the positive effects of meditation on stress.

Objectives: The present study sets out to investigate the relation of cognitive abilities to well-being and its interplay with key life course proxies of cognitive reserve and social capital in a large sample of older adults.Method: Three thousand eighty older adults served as sample for the present study. Physical well-being (EuroQoL-5D questionnaire) and psychological well-being (Satisfaction with Life Scale) as well as cognitive performance in terms of verbal abilities (Mill Hill vocabulary scale), processing speed (Trail Making Test part A), and cognitive flexibility (Trail Making Test part B) were assessed. Participants reported information on education, occupation, cognitively stimulating leisure activities, the different languages regularly spoken as well as family and close friends.Results: Moderation analyses showed that the relation of cognitive performance to physical and psychological well-being was significantly attenuated in individuals with a higher cognitive level of the first job after education, a larger number of midlife and current cognitively stimulating leisure activities, a larger number of languages regularly spoken, a larger number of significant family members and friends, and more frequent contact with and more confidence in significant family members.Conclusion: Present data suggest that the relation of low cognitive abilities to low well-being in old age is attenuated in individuals with greater cognitive reserve and greater social capital accumulated over the life course.

Many countries are raising the age of pension eligibility because of increases in life expectancy. Given the social gradient in life expectancy and health, it is important to understand the potential late-life health effects of prolonging working life and whether any effects differ by socioeconomic position. We examined the effect of prolonging working life beyond age 65 on mortality and a series of indicators of late-life physical health (the ability to climb stairs without difficulty, self-rated health, ADL limitations, and musculoskeletal pain) in a representative sample of the Swedish population. In addition to average effects, we also examined heterogeneous effects, for instance by occupational social class. To do this, we use propensity score matching, a method suitable for addressing causality in observational data. The data came from two linked Swedish longitudinal surveys based on nationally representative samples with repeated follow-ups; The Swedish Level of Living Survey and the Swedish Panel Study of Living conditions of the Oldest Old, and from national income and mortality registries. The analytical sample for the mortality outcome included 1852 people, and for late-life physical health outcomes 1461 people. We found no significant average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) of working to age 66 or above on the outcomes, measured an average of 12 years after retirement: mortality (ATT -0.039), the ability to climb stairs (ATT -0.023), self-rated health (ATT -0.009), ADL limitations (ATT -0.023), or musculoskeletal pain (ATT -0.009) in late life. Analyses of whether the results varied by occupational social class or the propensity to prolong working life were inconclusive but suggest a positive effect of prolonging working life on health outcomes. Accordingly, more detailed knowledge about the precise mechanisms underlying these results are needed. In conclusion, working to age 66 or above did not have effect on mortality or late-life physical health.