The associations among physical activity, aging-related body weight loss and the subsequent risk of type 2 diabetes in an older population: The Yale Health and Aging Project, 1982 to 1994

In contrast to the observation of body weight gain throughout young adulthood and middle ages, body weight is lost at older ages (over 65 y). At least part of the aging-related decline in body weight is believed to be the result of the loss of skeletal muscle mass or sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is associated with several functional and metabolic disorders. Numerous authors attribute sarcopenia to declines in physical activity or disuse. I hypothesized that body weight and physical activity would decrease with age in a cohort of older adults and that higher physical activity would attenuate the rate of aging-related body weight loss. Additionally, I assessed the contributions of weight loss and physical activity to the development of type 2 diabetes.;Individuals (n = 2812) from the Yale Health and Aging Project (YHAP) self-reported body weight a maximum of 10 times and physical activity 3 times between 1982 and 1994. A total activity score (TAS) was calculated from 4 questions concerning physical activity. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of the YHAP cohort revealed that both physical activity and body weight decreased with age. Over 6 years of follow up (1982 to 1988; n = 1194), on average, the cohort experienced a decline in TAS (mean +/- s.d.; -0.2 +/- 1.8) and a loss of body weight (mean +/- s.d.; -5.2 +/- 15.4 lbs.). In the repeated measures analysis (n = 2444), each one-unit increase in TAS attenuated the ∼1.4 lb. per year loss of weight by ∼0.1 lbs. Six-year changes in TAS were inversely associated with: baseline TAS, self-rated health, functional disability score, presence of a past or prevalent chronic condition, smoking, concurrent changes in functional disability score, and concurrent changes in self-rated health; and were positively related to: male gender, education, non-white races and concurrent weight change. Total activity scores and significant 2-year losses of 10 lbs. or more were not significant predictors of the subsequent risk of diabetes. This was likely to be a consequence of low study power.;These findings suggest that physical activity slows the rate of body weight loss in old age and thus may play a significant role in the prevention of several metabolic and functional disorders in late life.