Abstract
In the research of age-related performance declines, the value of cross-sectional versus longitudinal data is an ongoing debate. This paper analyses the largest longitudinal master track and field data set ever published to compare the age-related decline in performance between 16 athletics disciplines in cross-sectional and longitudinal data. The data set contained 83,209 results (64,948 from men, 78.1%; 18,261 from women, 21.9%) from 34,132 athletes (26,186 men, 76.7%; 7946 women, 23.3%), aged 35–97 years. In 61 athletes, 20 or more, and in 312 athletes, 15 or more results were available. The data were analyzed by regression statistics/ANCOVA. Men had a higher performance than women, irrespective of discipline in both cross-sectional and longitudinal data (p < 0.001). The performance in cross-sectional data was lower compared with the longitudinal data in all events and at any age (p ≤ 0.007) except for 1000 m men. The average age was lower in the cross-sectional than the longitudinal data (p < 0.001); men 46 and 58 years, women 44 and 56 years, respectively. The annual percentage rate of decline did not differ significantly between cross-sectional and longitudinal data, or between sexes in most disciplines. Performance declines after age 70 were 1.7 times (men) and 1.4 times (women) as steep as before. In conclusion, although longitudinal master athletics data of athletes with 10 and more results has higher average performance and age compared with cross-sectional data, cross-sectional data give a good impression of the annual percentage decline in performance, which was similar in men and women.
Highlights
Athletic performance declines with age, despite our best efforts to stop or minimize losses in physical capabilities by exercise, nutrition and further anti-aging interventions [1,2,3]
While much is known on performance declines in running with age [4,5,6,7,8], less is known on performance trajectories in other athletics disciplines, such as jumping and throwing [9]
Data, (2) the decline rates were similar in longitudinal and cross-sectional data, (3) men had a higher performance at any age than women in all disciplines, (4) the rate of decline was similar in men and women, (5) performance declines after age 70 were on average 1.7 times as steep in the men and
Summary
Athletic performance declines with age, despite our best efforts to stop or minimize losses in physical capabilities by exercise, nutrition and further anti-aging interventions [1,2,3]. Because of the larger availability of CS data, most studies on age-related performance declines in athletes are based on CS data [1, 6, 13,14,15], world records or results from international championships [9, 16,17,18,19]. Longitudinal data are not widely available and in particular LN data spanning more than one decade. It remains to be seen whether such discrepancies in the age-related trajectory of performance decline persist in a large data set
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