Exercise and the Onset of Disability in Later Life

Abstract

This study was to examine whether overall physical activity levels, and different types of earlier sporting activities, are associated with the onset of locomotor disability in early older age. A longitudinal analysis of a general population cohort of British men and women born in the early 1930s was conducted. Measures of overall activity levels at age 58 did not show a relationship with locomotor disability 5-6 years later. Swimming was the only sporting activity to show any strong evidence of a protective association with later locomotor disability. The promotion of swimming in adulthood could play a role in the prevention of locomotor disability and aid people's ability to follow active living health promotion guidelines in late mid-life and early old-age.