Practical and Functional Consequences of Aging

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Abstract
In the gerontologic and geriatric study of 70-year-old people in Göteborg, Sweden, the first cohort (born 1901/1902) has been followed for 15 years, the second (born 1906/1907) for 9 years, and an intervention study has been added to the third cohort (born 1911/1912). The results have allowed a comparison between age-related changes in joint function and manifestations of aging in other organs and organ systems, e.g. striated muscles, density of the skeleton, certain cardiovascular parameters, as well as changes in body mass and body composition. At age 79, a considerable proportion of the elderly had some restriction of their range of motion in one or several joints (one fifth in knee joints, two thirds in hip joints) compared with younger individuals. In the vast majority of probands, this restriction was rather limited and could be described as a stiffness of the locomotor system that could be due either to the aging process with a decrease in elastic tissue components or to age-related changes in behavior and physical activities. Joint complaints of the lower extremities were more frequent than complaints of the upper extremities. Previous sedentary workers were more disabled in activities of daily living than those whose work had previously been physically strenuous. Analysis of the roles of earlier life-style and environmental factors, as they related to physical condition and joint function at older ages, also showed that the degree of heavy work in previous occupations was correlated to radiographic osteoarthritis of the distal interphalangeal joint classes II-V in females and of the metacarpophalangeal joint class I in males, but not to radiographic or clinical osteoarthritis in knee joints. The prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis was not significantly different between the age groups 70, 75, and 79. Chondrocalcinosis increased with age in females only, but radiographic and clinical osteoarthritis of the knees was, at this cross-sectional comparison, not increasing with advancing age.

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