Association of Tai Chi exercise with physical and neurocognitive functions, frailty, quality of life and mortality in older adults: Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Study.

BACKGROUND: real-world observations on the long-term benefits of Tai Chi (TC) exercise, in terms of physical and cognitive functioning, frailty, quality of life (QOL) and mortality are lacking. METHODS: prospective cohort study participants were community-dwelling adults aged 55+, including 5,407 non-frequent TC participants (<1x/week) and 572 frequent TC participants (≥1x/week). Outcome measures at baseline and 3-5 years follow-up included physical performance (Knee Extension Strength, POMA Balance and Gait, Timed-up-and-go, Gait Speed) and neurocognitive performance (attention and working memory, visual-motor tracking and mental flexibility, verbal learning and memory, visual memory, spatial and constructional ability), Frailty Index ≥0.10, impaired QOL (SF12 physical and mental component) and all-cause mortality from mean 13 years follow-up. Effect estimates were adjusted for socio-demographics, other physical activities, nutritional risk and presence of cardiometabolic diseases. RESULTS: frequent TC participation was associated with 0.7-fold lower prevalence of impaired physical QOL [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.57-0.91], decreased 0.4-fold odds of incident prefrailty/frailty among robust participants at baseline and 0.7-fold odds of impaired mental QOL at follow-up among participants with normal mental QOL at baseline. Lower odds of mortality risk (HR = 0.89, 95%CI = 0.72-1.09) were not significant after controlling for socioeconomic, behavioural and health factors. Composite indexes of physical functional and neurocognitive performance were maintained at high level or increased at follow-up among frequent TC participants. CONCLUSION: TC exercise practised among community-dwelling older adults is associated with better physical, cognitive and functional wellbeing.

Tea Consumption and Risk of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Middle-Aged and Older Singaporean Adults.

Objective: The anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory actions of phytochemicals and the smooth muscle relaxant actions of theophylline present in tea may confer pulmonary protection and reduce COPD risk. We investigated tea consumption (black, oolong, or green) association with COPD risks in a population-based cohort study of older adults aged ≥55. Methods: GOLD criteria was used to identify prevalent and incident cases of COPD (FEV1/FVC <0.70) among 4617 participants and 920 participants free of COPD at baseline who were assessed at follow-up 4.5 years later. Results: Prevalent cases of COPD consumed less tea than their non-COPD counterparts. Estimated odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of association with prevalent COPD, adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, housing type, smoking, alcohol, physical activity and BMI declined across tea consumption levels (p-trend=0.048), and was lowest for ≥3 cups/day (OR=0.77, 95% CI=0.61-0.96). The cumulated incidence of COPD declined across tea consumption categories (p-trend=0.012) and the lowest OR of association (OR=0.35, 95% CI=0.17-0.69) with consuming ≥3 cups/day after co-variate adjustment. Conclusion: Different kinds of tea showed similar non-significant trends of associations but appeared to be strongest for green tea. Tea consumption in this Asian population was associated with lowered COPD prevalence and incidence.

Reliability and validity of a self-rated analogue scale for global measure of successful aging.

OBJECTIVE: Dimension-specific objective measures are criticized for their limited perspective and failure to endorse subjective perceptions by respondents, but the validity and correlates of a subjective global measure of successful aging (SA) are still not well established. We evaluated the reliability and validity of a self-rated analogue scale of global SA in an elderly Singaporean population. DESIGN: Cross-sectional data analysis using a comprehensive questionnaire survey. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: 489 community-dwelling Singaporeans aged 65 years and over. MEASUREMENTS: Self-rated SA on an analogue scale from 1 (least successful) to 10 (most successful) was analyzed for its relationship to criterion-based measures of five specific dimensions (physical health and function, mental well-being, social engagement, psychological well-being, and spirituality/religiosity), as well as outcome measures (life satisfaction and quality of life). RESULTS: Self-rated SA was significantly correlated to measures of specific dimensions (standardized ß from 0.11 to 0.39), most strongly with psychological functioning (ß = 0.391). The five dimension-specific measures together accounted for 16.7% of the variance in self-rated SA. Self-rated SA best predicted life satisfaction (R(2) = 0.26) more than any dimension-specific measure (R(2) from 0.05 to 0.17). Self-rated SA, vis-à-vis dimension-specific measures, was related to a different set of correlates, and was notably independent of chronological age, sex, education, socioeconomic status, and medical comorbidity, but was significantly related to ethnicity. CONCLUSION: The self-rated analogue scale is a sensitive global measure of SA encompassing a spectrum of underlying dimensions and subjective perspectives and its validity is well supported in this study.