Age and gender differences in physical capability levels from mid-life onwards: the harmonisation and meta-analysis of data from eight UK cohort studies

Using data from eight UK cohorts participating in the Healthy Ageing across the Life Course (HALCyon) research programme, with ages at physical capability assessment ranging from 50 to 90+ years, we harmonised data on objective measures of physical capability (i.e. grip strength, chair rising abilit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2011-11, Vol.6 (11), p.e27899-e27899
Main Authors: Cooper, Rachel, Hardy, Rebecca, Aihie Sayer, Avan, Ben-Shlomo, Yoav, Birnie, Kate, Cooper, Cyrus, Craig, Leone, Deary, Ian J, Demakakos, Panayotes, Gallacher, John, McNeill, Geraldine, Martin, Richard M, Starr, John M, Steptoe, Andrew, Kuh, Diana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Age
Age Factors
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Analysis
Balance
Biology
Body size
Child
Child, Preschool
Cohort analysis
Cohort Studies
Cross-Sectional Studies
Data processing
Epidemiology
Female
Gender aspects
Grip strength
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Longitudinal studies
Male
Medicine
Meta-analysis
Middle Aged
Older people
Physical Endurance - physiology
Sex differences
Sex Factors
Socioeconomic factors
Studies
Walking
Young Adult
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Summary:Using data from eight UK cohorts participating in the Healthy Ageing across the Life Course (HALCyon) research programme, with ages at physical capability assessment ranging from 50 to 90+ years, we harmonised data on objective measures of physical capability (i.e. grip strength, chair rising ability, walking speed, timed get up and go, and standing balance performance) and investigated the cross-sectional age and gender differences in these measures. Levels of physical capability were generally lower in study participants of older ages, and men performed better than women (for example, results from meta-analyses (N = 14,213 (5 studies)), found that men had 12.62 kg (11.34, 13.90) higher grip strength than women after adjustment for age and body size), although for walking speed, this gender difference was attenuated after adjustment for body size. There was also evidence that the gender difference in grip strength diminished with increasing age, whereas the gender difference in walking speed widened (p
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0027899