“This is the time of year when people makeand breakNew Year’s resolutions to get more physical activity,” said lead author Nancy W. Glynn, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health.
Previous research indicates that getting more physical activity can reduce a person’s fatigability.
To know more, researchers administered the Pittsburgh Fatigability Scale to 2,906 participants aged 60 or older in the Long-Life Family Study, an international study that follows family members across two generations.
Participants ranged from 0 to 5 how tired they thought or imagined that certain activitiessuch as a leisurely 30-minute walk, light housework, or heavy gardeningwould make them.
Follow-up for this work concluded at the end of 2019, to avoid any increased mortality impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave the team an average of 2.7 years of data on each participant.
After accounting for a variety of factors that influence mortality, such as depression, pre-existing or underlying terminal illness, age, and gender, they found that participants who scored 25 points or higher on the Pittsburgh Fatigability Scale were 2.3 times more likely to die in the 2.7 years after completing the scale, compared to their counterparts who scored below 25.
These findings also show that people who increase their physical activity can decrease their fatigability score and one of the best ways to increase physical activity is by setting manageable goals and starting a routine, like a regular walk or scheduled exercise.
Beyond tying high fatigability to an earlier death, this study also demonstrates the value of the Pittsburgh Fatigability Scale, which researchers created in 2014. It has since been translated into 11 languages.
Source: Medindia
