New Epidemiology Study Findings Reported from Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology (Combined Impacts of Physical Activity, Dietary Variety, and Social Interaction on Incident Functional Disability in Older Japanese Adults): Health and Medicine – Epidemiology

2023 JUL 17 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Japan Daily Report -- Investigators discuss new findings in epidemiology. According to news reporting originating from Tokyo, Japan, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “This 3.6-year prospective study examined combined impacts of physical activity, dietary variety, and social interaction on incident disability and estimated population-attributable fraction for disability reduction in older adults. Participants were 7,822 initially non-disabled residents (3,966 men and 3,856 women) aged 65-84 years of Ota City, Tokyo, Japan.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology: “Sufficiency of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) 150 min/week, dietary variety score (DVS) 3 (median), and social interaction (face-to-face and/or non-face-to-face) 1 time/week was assessed using self-administered questionnaires. Disability incidence was prospectively identified using the long-term care insurance system’s nationally unified database. During a follow-up of 3.6 years, 1,046 (13.4%) individuals had disabilities. Independent multivariate-hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of MVPA, DVS, and social interaction sufficiency for incident disability were 0.68 (95% CI, 0.59-0.78), 0.87 (95% CI, 0.77-0.99), and 0.90 (95% CI, 0.79-1.03), respectively. Incident disability HRs gradually reduced with increased frequency of satisfying these behaviors (any one: HR 0.82; 95% CI, 0.65-1.03; any two: HR 0.65; 95% CI, 0.52-0.82; and all three behaviors: HR 0.54; 95% CI, 0.43-0.69), in an inverse dose-response manner (P < 0.001 for trend). Population-attributable fraction for disability reduction in satisfying any one, any two, and all three behaviors were 4.0% (95% CI, -0.2 to 7.9%), 9.6% (95% CI, 4.8-14.1%), and 16.0% (95% CI, 8.7-22.8%), respectively.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Combining physical activity, dietary variety, and social interaction substantially enhances the impacts on preventing disability among older adults, with evidence of an inverse dose-response manner. Improving insufficient behavior elements through individual habits and preexisting social group activities may be effective in preventing disability in the community.”

For more information on this research see: Combined Impacts of Physical Activity, Dietary Variety, and Social Interaction on Incident Functional Disability in Older Japanese Adults. Journal of Epidemiology, 2023,33(7):350-359. (Journal of Epidemiology - http://jeaweb.jp/english/journal/index.html). The publisher for Journal of Epidemiology is Japan Epidemiological Association.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.2188/jea.JE20210392.

Our news editors report that more information may be obtained by contacting Satoshi Seino, Research Team for Social Participation and Community Health, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo, Japan. Additional authors for this research include Yu Nofuji, Yuri Yokoyama, Takumi Abe, Mariko Nishi, Mari Yamashita, Miki Narita, Toshiki Hata, Shoji Shinkai, Akihiko Kitamura, Yoshinori Fujiwara.

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