Physical capability and musculoskeletal health
Which factors through the course of life promote and
protect adult physical capability and musculoskeletal health,
and which increase vulnerability to accelerated
decline?
Research programme: Life course determinants of
physical capability and musculoskeletal ageing
Programme leader: Professor Diana Kuh
Postdoctoral scientist: Dr Rachel Cooper
External collaborators:
Physical capability refers to an individual’s capacity to
undertake the physical tasks of daily living. Maintaining
physical capability and musculoskeletal function as we grow
older are important aspects of healthy ageing, enabling
people to live independently for longer and with a higher
quality of life.
Low levels or loss of capability and accelerated ageing of
the musculoskeletal system pose threats to independent
living, impact negatively on quality of life and are linked
to risk of disease and death.
Tests of physical capability, namely grip strength,
standing balance and chair rises, were measured at 53 years,
and these measures plus an additional measure of gait speed
are being repeated in the ongoing clinic data collection.
These tests differentially reflect muscle strength, power and
speed, mental concentration and subtle motor control, and may
provide summary indicators of biological ageing at the
individual level. The ongoing
clinic data collection will also provide new measures of
bone health and body composition.
Objectives
- To investigate whether lifetime risk factors known to
predict physical capability at 53 years, such as infant motor
development, lifetime body size, physical activity,
health status and lifetime socioeconomic circumstances, also
predict change in capability with age and membership of
high and low functioning groups
- To study how physical capability relates to cognitive
capability, and the common developmental and ageing processes
that may be responsible for co-variation in age related
change
- To study inter-relationships between physical capability,
musculoskeletal function, and underlying physiological
systems, such as the endocrine system
- To investigate how physical capability and
musculoskeletal function relate to indicators of biological
ageing at the molecular and cellular level, such as
telomere length and genetic factors
- To examine the relationship between lifetime intake of
nutrients essential for bone growth and development
(including the intake of calcium, phosphorus, protein
and vitamin K) and adult body composition and bone size,
mineral status, biomarkers of bone health and
fracture
- To investigate the association between the consumption of
dairy products, fruit and vegetables, and the overall
acid-generating potential of the diet on later bone
health
- To explore the impact of reduced capability and
musculoskeletal ageing on disability, wellbeing, quality of
life and survival, and factors that may modify this
impact.
Sample finding: Physical and cognitive capability: are they
linked?
One of our most recent papers(1) examines whether
physical capability at age 53 years, in terms of grip
strength, standing balance and chair rises, is associated
with childhood cognitive development and with adult measures
of cognitive capability and change between 43 and 53
years.
Chair rises were most strongly associated with measures of
cognitive capability that show the most age-related decline
in adult life (such as verbal memory and information
processing). In contrast, standing balance was most strongly
associated with measures of childhood cognitive development
and with adult measures of cognitive capability that are more
likely to be maintained as we grow older (such as
vocabulary). These findings remained even after adjusting for
other known factors that influence adult physical
capability.
This evidence suggests that the links between cognitive and
physical capability reflect initial developmental differences
as well as common degenerative processes.
(1) Kuh D, Cooper R, Hardy R, Guralnik J, Richards M.
Lifetime cognitive performance is associated with midlife physical
performance in a prospective national birth cohort study
Psychosomatic Medicine 2009;71:38-48