Participation in youth sports influences sarcopenia parameters in older adults

PeerJ. 2023 Nov 10:11:e16432. doi: 10.7717/peerj.16432. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Background: The degree of deterioration in sarcopenia parameters may be affected by a person's level of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB). Our study focused on examining the PA and SB of active older adults including those with and without history of sports in youth.

Methods: Forty-four participants (20 men and 24 women, mean age of total sample 76.1 ± 5.2 years) were included in analysis of PA, SB habits and sarcopenia parameters, determined by skeletal muscle index, hand-grip strength, gait speed, Timed Up and Go tests (TUG). PA and SB were recorded with accelerometers. Our primary aim was to compare participants with (AH) or without a sport history in youth (NAH), in their sarcopenia parameters and PA and SB habits.

Results: When divided participants in two groups (AH and NAH) and adjusting for age, we have detected the differences for skeletal muscle index (p = 0.007) and hand-grip strength (p = 0.004) in favor of participants who were engaged in sports in youth. We did not find any differences in PA and SB habits between the AH and NAH groups. After adjusting for age, participants with a higher number of daily steps, longer moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) bouts, a higher number of MVPA bouts in a day and higher overall MVPA engagement achieved better results in hand-grip strength and TUG. Participants with lower SB had better TUG and gait speed results.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that engaging in sports activities in youth can make a difference with sarcopenia parameters. Although we found no differences in PA and SB habits between participants with AH and NAH, participants with an athlete history performed better results in sarcopenia parameters.

Keywords: Active ageing; Elderly; Exercise; Muscle disorder; Sedentarism.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Aged
  • Exercise / physiology
  • Female
  • Hand Strength / physiology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Muscle, Skeletal
  • Sarcopenia* / epidemiology
  • Youth Sports*

Grants and funding

This research was conducted in the framework of the PANGeA project, CB147 Physical Activity and Nutrition for Quality Ageing, supported by the Cross-border Cooperation Program Slovenia–Italy 2007–2013 and cofinanced by European Regional Development Fund Grant 042-2/2009-18/052012. The research was funded by ARIS Research program, Grant Number P5-0381, Kinesiology for quality of life and as well as Slovenian national project L5-5550—Development of noninvasive marker for muscle atrophy (Grant No. 1000-15-1988), conducted by Institute for kinesiology research Science and Research Centre Koper Slovenia. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.