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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Boston, Massachusetts » Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center On Aging » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #209142
Title: Effects of age and gender on physical performance

Author
item BONGARD, VANINA - UNIVERSITY OF TOULOUSE
item MCDERMOTT, ANN - TUFTS UNIVERSITY
item DALLAL, GERARD - TUFTS UNIVERSITY
item Schaefer, Ernst

Submitted to: Age
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/6/2007
Publication Date: 9/29/2007
Citation: Bongard, V., Mcdermott, A.Y., Dallal, G.E., Schaefer, E. 2007. Effects of age and gender on physical performance. Age. 29(2-3):77-85.

Interpretive Summary: Our purpose was to examine the decline in physical performance with aging. We examined the one hour swim performance of those participating in the US Masters Swimming Program with over 2000 men and over 2000 women. The annual decline in performance was twice at age 40 years, and four times as great at age 80 years than at age 20 years. Overall performance between age 20 years and age 80 years declined by about 50% in both men and women. However the greatest decline was in participation with the numbers of men and women competing at over age 80 years being only 4% of the numbers competing in the peak 40-49 year decade. Male performance was on average about 10% greater than that of female performance at all ages, but there was a very large overlap in male and female performance as determined by distance covered in one hour of swimming. Exercise is a health promoting activity, and better ways are needed to encourage participation in the elderly, even though with disabilities.

Technical Abstract: Our purpose was to assess the effects of age and gender on physical performance using one-hour swimming performance and participation in 2,173 man and 2,098 women, aged 19 – 91 years from a long distance (one-hour) national competition. Decline in performance with aging was found to be quadratic rather than linear. The equation which best fit variation in distance in meters (m) according to age in years (y) in men was: distance (m) = 4058 + 2.18 x age - 0.29 x age2. The same equation fit the data for women except that 380 meters needed to be subtracted from the calculated value at all ages (about a 10% difference), with a large overlap in performance between men and women. The one-year age-related declines in performance were about twice as great at 40 y, and more than 4 times as great at 80 y than at 20 y of age. The mean decline in performance over the entire age span age was about 50% and was parallel in men and women. Far greater declines in numbers participating with advanced age (80 y and over, about 4% of peak numbers) were observed compared with the peak 40-49 y age group. In conclusion, the declines in performance were parallel in men and women at all ages, and increased progressively with age, with even greater age-related differences in participation in both men and women.