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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, muscles, muscle disorder, elderly, exercise, sedentarism
Published in DKUM: 15.04.2025; Views: 0; Downloads: 0
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Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries took several restrictions to contain the spread of coronavirus. In the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, primary schools in Slovenia were closed for a period long time (from October 19th 2020 until January 18th 2021 when they were partially reopened for 6–9 year olds until February 15th 2021 when they were reopened for all children) and organized sport activities for children and adolescents under the age of 15 was not allowed during this period. The aim of the study was to examine how these restrictions were reflected in the amount of different forms of physical activity (PA) of 6–12-year old children (N = 3,936). Data were collected using an online questionnaire (International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form) comparing different forms of PA before (BEFORE) and during (DURING) remote schooling. The results show that there has been a decline in children’s PA DURING, specifically, only 4.3% of children had their physical education ≥ 45 min (or 77.7% ≤ 30 min), as is the usual duration in Slovenia. There was also a remarkable decline in extracurricular sports activities (p < 0.001), which BEFORE had been participated by 72.2% of children, while DURING remote schooling, as many as 83.5% of children did not participate these activities. 69.7% of children participated in organized sports in clubs at least once a week, while DURING remote schooling, as many as 88.1% (p < 0.001) did not participate in such form of activities. Furthermore, the time spent exercising in moderate to vigorous PA also decreased (BEFORE 8.2% vs. DURING 24.9%; p < 0.001). We found that during lockdown there has been an alarming decrease in the frequency and duration of organized PA at school and at sports clubs. These findings are a good starting point for designing (developing) an effective strategy for promoting health-enhancing PA of children in the event of a future lockdown or similar situations. The strategy should focus on the appropriate implementation of PA curriculum and motivate young people to participate regularly in extracurricular organized and non-organized activities.
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, physical activity, children, remote schooling, physical education
Published in DKUM: 01.07.2024; Views: 134; Downloads: 10
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Abstract: Regular physical activity (PA) reduces the health risk of childhood obesity and associated chronic diseases as well as mental health problems. Since PA declines as children age as well with future generations it is of highest importance to intervene in school and out-of-school settings. Out-of-school periods affect children's PA as it is mainly left to the interest and motivation of their parents. We compared accelerometer-based PA patterns in 93 6- to 9-year old children assessed four times: before (May/June), during (August), and after (September) summer holidays and at a 1-year follow up (May/June). Before summer holidays children were assessed also for anthropometry and motor tests. During summer holidays overall PA decreased by 18% (p < 0.001), physical inactivity increased by 5.5% (p < 0.001), moderate PA decreased by 53% (p < 0.001) and moderate to vigorous PA decreased by 45% (p < 0.001) when compared to before summer holidays. Furthermore, overall PA remained diminished also after summer holidays by 8.8% (p = 0.001) but recovered to baseline values at 1-year follow up. About 30% of overall PA and moderate to vigorous PA decrease during summer holidays could be explained by children's fitness level as a greater decrease was found in children with better results in standing long jump and 300-meter running time. Our finding detects an alarming summer holiday decrease in children PA that should not be neglected in future studies and intervention designs.
Keywords: MVPA, otroci, poletne počitnice, gibalna neaktivnost, sedentarnost, pospeškometer, children, vacations, physical inactivity, sedentary behavior, accelerometer
Published in DKUM: 15.05.2024; Views: 254; Downloads: 12
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Abstract: We examined activation patterns of the gastrocnemius medialis (GM), gastrocnemius lateralis (GL), soleus (SO), and tibialis anterior (TA) muscles in eight older (58.4 ± 3.3 years) and seven young (23.1 ± 2.9 years) participants, before and after 14 days of horizontal bed rest. Visual feedback on the exerted muscle torque was provided to the participants. The discharge patterns of individual motor units (MUs) were studied in three repetitions of isometric plantar flexion at 30 and 60% of Maximum Voluntary Contraction (MVC), before, and 1 day after the 14-day bed rest, respectively. In the GL and GM muscles, the older participants demonstrated higher MU discharge rates than the young, regardless of the contraction level, both before and after the bed rest. In the TA and SO muscles, the differences between the older and young participants were less consistent. Detailed analysis revealed person-specific changes in the MU discharge rates after the bed rest. To quantify the coactivation patterns we calculated the correlation coefficients between the cumulative spike trains of identified MUs from each muscle, and measured the root mean square difference of the correlation coefficients between the trials of the same session (intra-session variability) and between different sessions (inter-session variability) in each participant (intra-person comparison) and across participants (inter-person comparison). In the intra-person comparison, the inter-session variability was higher than the intra-session variability, either before or after the bed rest. At 60% MVC torque, the young demonstrated higher inter-person variability of coactivation than the older participants, but this variability decreased significantly after the bed rest. In older participants, inter-person variability was consistently lower at 60% than at 30% MVC torque. In young participants, inter-person variability became lower at 60% than at 30% MVC torque only after the bed rest. Precaution is required when analyzing the MU discharge and coactivation patterns, as individual persons demonstrate individual adaptations to aging or bed rest.
Keywords: mišičnoskeletni sistem, mišice, bed rest, staranje, elektromiografija, high density electromyography, muscle disuse, motor units, discharge rate, aging
Published in DKUM: 07.07.2023; Views: 539; Downloads: 61
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Abstract: Namen študije je bil ugotoviti, koliko izvenšolska organizirana vadba atletike pripomore k dvigu količine in intenzivnosti gibalne/športne aktivnosti otrok med samo uro atletike in izven nje. Z merilnikom pospeška smo izmerili tedensko gibalno/športno aktivnost 22 otrok (11 dečkov, starih 6,6 ± 1,2 leta), vključujoč dve uri organizirane vadbe atletike. Med uro atletike je skupna gibalna/športna aktivnost 1787 ± 620 sunkov/minuto (brez atletike 615,5 ± 116,6), prevladuje gibalna neaktivnost (29 ± 11,7 minute) ter srednja in visoka intenzivna gibalna/športna aktivnost (19,0 ± 8,9 minute). Dve uri atletike na teden povečata povprečno dnevno srednjo in visoko intenzivno gibalno/športno aktivnost (16 %, P < 0,001) ter zmanjšata čas gibalne neaktivnosti (–10 %, P < 0,001). Atletika sicer prispeva k doseganju priporočil na področju gibanja, toda stremeti bi bilo treba k še večji intenzivnosti izvedbe ur atletike.
Keywords: gibalne sposobnosti, motorične sposobnosti, športne aktivnosti, otroci, atletika
Published in DKUM: 12.10.2017; Views: 1617; Downloads: 205
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