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Objectives To prospectively examine whether physical activity or change in physical activity increases or decreases the risk of disability later in life. Methods Tobit regression models were used to examine the effect of physical activity at baseline and change from baseline on disability 10 and 20 years later in 6913 adults. Results Increasing recreational physical activity was associated with reduced risk of disability whereas reducing recreational physical activity increased the risk of disability after 10 years. Conclusions The analyses reveal a protective effect of sustained physical activity on disability among adults.

Previous research on status generalization suggests that physicians may use non-medical factors in their evaluation, interpretation, and treatment of persons presenting for care. This study compares physicians' evaluations of obesity with physical measurements of body stature and fat collected from a large national health examination survey. While the anthropometric measures are strong predictors of physician evaluations of obesity, between 13% and 19% of the respondents were classified in ways that could not be predicted from the anthropometric measures. Moreover, personal and status characteristics were related to physicians' evaluations of obesity. Women, especially White and taller women, were more likely to be evaluated as obese than would be predicted from the anthropometric measures-African American women were less likely than their White counterparts to be so classified. Physicians' evaluation of obesity was least consistent with measured obesity for older respondents. Indeed among men, age was the most important status characteristic shaping physician evaluations: older men were more likely to be evaluated as obese. The findings suggest that the cluster of status characteristics is important to physicians during medical evaluations.

Objectives-To prospectively examine whether physical activity or change in physical activity increases or decreases the risk of disability later in life.Methods-Tobit regression models were used to examine the effect of physical activity at baseline and change from baseline on disability 10 and 20 years later in 6913 adults.Results-Increasing recreational physical activity was associated with reduced risk of disability whereas reducing recreational physical activity increased the risk of disability after 10 years. Conclusions-The analyses reveal a protective effect of sustained physical activity on disability among adults.Keywords recreational activity; nonrecreational activity; physical functioning; health behavior Physical activity has been shown to have a protective effect on the development of disease and disability, and regular physical activity is a staple of preventive health programs. 1 Among relatively healthy individuals, physical activity is associated with optimal function and low incidence of functional disability. 2 Even among those with disabilities, exercise programs improve health and can reduce existing levels of functional disability. 3 Low levels of physical activity caused by difficulties in performing daily activities may cause a vicious circle leading to further decline in strength and worsening of functional ability. Alternatively, increased physical activity among older people is associated with increased functional ability 4 as well as improved cognitive performance, mood, body image, selfesteem, and a general feeling of psychological well-being. 5 Verbrugge and Jette 6 suggested that a high level of physical activity some years earlier might be expected to improve the likelihood of having a lower level of disability, based on the familiar "use it or lose it" principal. Most studies that show a beneficial effect of exercise on disability have focused on leisure-time physical activity. 7 However, nonrecreational physical activity has also shown a protective effect among vigorously active occupations against mortality from coronary heart disease compared with the effect observed among sedentary jobs. With respect to disability, some studies have suggested that jobs requiring frequent heavy lifting greater than 25 pounds, especially when combined with twisting or asymmetry, might predispose individuals to disability. 8,9 The purpose of this investigation is to address the Copyright (c) PNG Publications All rights reserved. Contact Dr Gretebeck; r.gretebeck@wayne.edu. NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript relationship between changes in both nonrecreational and recreational physical activity and disability later in life using a large national database with 3 separate time points over a 20-year period in adults of all ages. NIH Public Access Methods and Materials SampleThis investigation was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Purdue University. The database used in this investigation has been previously described. 10 Briefly, data from ...