The influence of winter and summer seasons on physical fitness in aged population

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Abstract

Epidemiological studies have described the association between physical fitness and health. Few have reported the impact of seasonal variation on fitness determinants, in elderly. We investigated the effects of summer and winter environmental conditions on physical fitness, in both exercise and non-exercise elders. 371 non-institutionalized older adults (74.1% female; 78.4 ± 5.3 years) randomly recruited from a total sample of 1338 subjects from north of Portugal, were prospectively followed during 1 year and 3 assessments were performed – April (baseline), October (summer season) and April (winter season). Four groups were defined, according to reported habits of exercising: Exercise (EG); Winter Exercise (WG); and Summer Exercise (SG); non-Exercise (nEG). Muscle strength was assessed with handgrip and isometric knee extension test, and aerobic capacity with the 6 min walking test. Repeated measures ANOVA with two between-subjects factors were run for independent variables, considering a three Time points. Significance set at p < .05. Findings show that: (1) men were fitter than women; (2) EG showed better results than nEG (p = .000), but not different than WG or SG, (3) nEG physical fitness was not significantly different from WG and SG; (4) SG and WG showed similar results; (5) there was significant group-by-time interaction for all variables in study. Among elderly, the regular physical exercise determined better cardiorespiratory fitness and levels of strength compared to individuals that were not exercising, however, no season impact was observed. Independently of exercising mode, regular, seasonal or not exercising, the pattern of changes in physical fitness throughout the year was similar.

Introduction

The age-related decline in physical fitness in aged population is well reported in literature (Ribom, Mellstrom, Ljunggren, & Karlsson, 2011; Rikli & Jones, 2013). By the fifth decade, similarly to the muscle mass decline, the losing in muscle strength occurs at steady decline rates of approximately 1–2% per year (Vandervoort, 2002). The deterioration on physical fitness seems to contribute to rising morbidity and mortality rates (Paterson & Warburton, 2010).

Previous longitudinal studies have reported the effectiveness of the intervention programs in maintaining quality of life (Blain et al., 2012). For example, exercise intervention programs applying to muscle strength (Geirsdottir et al., 2012; Seguin, Heidkamp-Young, Kuder, & Nelson, 2012), aerobic training (Halloway, Wilbur, Schoeny, Semanik, & Marquez, 2015), or both (Cadore et al., 2014), have been reported as successful contributors for improving physical fitness. Furthermore, intervention programs including different exercise type as Tai Chi (Callahan, Cleveland, Altpeter, & Hackney, 2015) or Pilates (Geremia, Iskiewicz, Marschner, Lehnen, & Lehnen, 2015), have shown important and positive output on the physical fitness of aged population, comparatively to their not exercising counterparts.

Daily conditions were find to modify customary physical activity and daily routines (Kristal-Boneh, Froom, Harari, Malik, & Ribak, 2000; Merrill, Shields, White, & Druce, 2005). Results show that elderly took a higher amount of steps in summer comparatively to winter season (Clemes, Hamilton, & Griffiths, 2011), and that levels of physical activity vary with seasonality, being the poor or extreme weather a barrier to participation in physical activity with a possible negative impact physical fitness (Tucker & Gilliland, 2007). In fact, little is known about the impact of winter and summer seasonal variations conditions in physical fitness of aged population (Clemes et al., 2011; McCormack, Friedenreich, Shiell, Giles-Corti, & Doyle-Baker, 2010). Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of summer and winter seasonal conditions on the physical fitness in both, exercise and non-exercise aged population.

Section snippets

Methods

This study was a 12 months longitudinal design involving aged population. Three testing sessions were defined as baseline, month 6 and month 12, according to two-time series: summer period, from May to October, and winter period from November to April. During these periods the median air temperatures registered in Portugal were 20.5 °C for summer, and 11.3 °C for winter. Rainfall values were 11.3 and 115.1 mm respectively for summer and winter periods. All participants were tested in the same

Results

The physical characteristics of the participants recruited in the present study by group, at baseline, are presented in Table 1.

No significant differences were found between groups in participants’ physical characteristics.

The results of the within-subjects analysis (Table 2) showed in a main effect of TIME on Isometric Knee Extension, Handgrip, and 6 Min Walking (all p < .004); and no interaction between TIME x SEX (all p > .05), or TIME x PA (all p > .05), or between TIME x SEX x PA (all

Discussion

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of summer and winter environmental conditions on physical fitness, in both exercise and non-exercise aged population. We found that the longitudinal pattern of physical fitness across the year was similar, independent of the elderly exercising all year around, not exercising at all, or having a seasonal mode of exercising (only winter, or only summer). The effect of exercise was clear, with the EG group showing to be significantly better fit,

Conclusion

The present research aimed to investigate the effects of summer and winter environmental conditions on physical fitness, in both exercise and non-exercise aged population. The major findings were that seasonal exercising may not have impact on physical fitness, in male or female. Groups exercising in summer or winter time showed similar physical fitness across year span.

Despite being stronger and fitter, aged individuals who exercise throughout the year or exercise seasonally showed a similar

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by FEDER, COMPETE and Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) funds: The age-related Health and physical activity status in elderly (PTDC/DTP-DES/0209/2012)

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