Learn the Early Signs of Functional Decline in Men

The early detection of functional decline is possible by observing patients as they engage in simple actions such as sitting down and getting up from a chair, standing still, and walking a short distance, suggests a new study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

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What is a Functional Decline?

Impaired physical performance is the first sign of functional decline in the elderly. It is considered a pre-clinical transition stage toward incapacity, appearing before difficulties are experienced with everyday activities such as using public transport, shopping, doing housework, cooking, bathing, getting dressed, and taking meals. Early diagnosis could help prevent older people from becoming unable to perform these day-to-day tasks. A study was conducted at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) in Brazil to find the feasible signs that indicate a functional decline.

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How to Identify the Functional Decline Risk?

Researchers analyzed data for 3,875 individuals aged 60 or more that were monitored for eight years by the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).

They were scored according to the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), widely used by health workers everywhere. The battery covers gait speed while walking 2.4m, static balance, and a chair sit-to-stand test, among other metrics.

Assessment of functional physical performance is an objective evaluation of the ability to carry out specific tasks based on set criteria such as scores, repetitions, or time is taken. It differs from a subjective evaluation of functional status, which involves individuals self-reporting the activities they are capable or incapable of performing.

Physical performance is considered the sixth vital sign in assessing the elderly. The complete SPPB takes about 15 minutes and, despite the extra time required, may offer more explanatory power than a walking speed test on its own.

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Weak Muscles and Abdominal Obesity — A Dangerous Combination

Researchers detected impairment of physical performance mostly in men with abdominal obesity as well as age-associated loss of muscle strength (dynapenia), a phenotype common among older people.

Men lose more muscle strength than women during their lifetime and tend to accumulate abdominal fat even before they’re elderly. Abdominal fat is more active metabolically and generates low-level inflammation, with negative repercussions for muscle function. This explains the differences between the sexes, and why dynapenic abdominal obesity affects physical performance more in men.

In contrast, dynapenia combined with general obesity defined in terms of body mass index (BMI) did not correlate with declining physical performance in men or women.

Another important finding was that neither abdominal obesity nor dynapenia on their own was associated with declining physical performance over time in elderly men and women.

The clinical importance of these findings is that identifying and clinically managing the dynapenic abdominal obesity phenotype is essential to stave off the first signs of functional decline in older men.

The 2020 World Health Organization guidelines also recommend that men aged 65 or more should regularly perform many aerobic exercises and muscle-strengthening activities.

They should get at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderately intense exercise or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise each week. As part of their weekly physical activity, they should also practice strength training of all the main muscle groups on three or more days each week.

Source-Medindia