No abstract

Long-term lifestyle-based daily walking program prevented the age-related IMAT accumulation in middle-aged and elderly adults. Furthermore, increased daily walking correlated with decreased IMAT over 5 years.

Background: People's preventive behavior is crucial for reducing the infection and transmission of a novel coronavirus, especially in aging societies. Moreover, since behavioral restrictions may lead to high risks of secondary health impacts among older people, healthpromoting behaviors, including proper nutrition intake and regular exercise, should also be encouraged. Although various studies have reported the positive association between social participation and health among older people, whether their social participation relates to preventive and health-promoting behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic was uncertain. This study examined the relationships between social participation before the COVID-19 pandemic and preventive and health-promoting behaviors during the pandemic among older people in Japan. Methods: We obtained longitudinal data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES), which conducted baseline and follow-up surveys from November 2019 to January 2020 (pre-pandemic) and from November 2020 to February 2021 (during the pandemic) in ten municipalities. In total, 10,523 responses were analyzed. Preventive and health-promoting behaviors were measured by nine actions (e.g., wash/disinfect hands, wear masks, do exercise), and the total of these actions was divided into two (highly implemented ²7 or not highly implemented <7). Social participation was assessed by nine activities (e.g., participating in volunteering, sports clubs, had paid work). Adjusted for covariates, we examined the relationships between each social participation and preventive and health-promoting behavior by the logistic regression analysis or the Poisson regression analysis. Results: Older people who participated in social activities pre-pandemic showed a tendency to implement preventive and healthpromoting behaviors during the pandemic. Especially, participations in "sports" and "Kayoi-no-ba" were positively related to "do exercise." Only "had paid work" was negatively related to highly implemented preventive and health-promoting behaviors. Conclusions: There were the positive relationships between social participation and preventive and health-promoting behavior. This study also indicated that older people who did not participate in social activities or had paid work before the COVID-19 pandemic may have higher risks of infection and secondary health impacts. Taking into account such old people's lifestyles as well as their workplace conditions, promoting appropriate behaviors need to be considered.

This study examined the effects of a 6-month circuit gym workout on muscle and fat cross-sectional area (CSA) and muscle strength in middle-aged and older women. The participants were 49 women without severe metabolic disease, exercise limitation, or exercise habits. They were randomly assigned to two groups, circuit gym using group (CRT: n = 25) and walking group (WALK: n = 24). Both groups followed the exercise program for 6 months. Thigh and abdominal CSA before and after the program were measured using magnetic resonance imaging. Moreover, knee extensor/flexor and hip flexor strength were measured using a dynamometer. After completion of the exercise program, CSA of the psoas major muscle and isokinetic knee and hip flexion strength significantly increased in the CRT group compared with the WALK group (CSA: 7.1% vs 1.4% respectively; isokinetic strength: 7.5% vs −4.3% (knee), 23.6% vs 2.2% (hip), respectively). In addition, subcutaneous adipose tissue of the thigh in the CRT group significantly decreased compared with that in the WALK group (−6.5% vs −1.8%, respectively). These results imply that in middle-aged and older women, the use of circuit gym leads to a more effective increase in CSA of the psoas major muscle, decrease in thigh subcutaneous adipose tissue, and increase in knee and hip flexor strength compared with brisk walking.