Physical performance reflects cognitive function, fall risk, and quality of life in community-dwelling older people

This report searched for relationships between physical performance and other health indices through a detailed investigation of a randomly sampled cohort from a basic town resident registry. Residents between the age of 50 and 89 years were randomly sampled from the basic resident registry of a cooperating town for construction of a 415-participant cohort that minimized selection bias. Cognitive function measures, annual fall frequency, and SF-8 as an HRQOL measure were the outcomes of interest. The impact of physical function on outcomes was predicted using multivariate regression models with age and gender as covariates. Knee muscle strength, grip strength, one-leg standing time, and two-step test score had a significant impact on cognitive scores and SF-8 physical component summary scores. A shift of -1 standard deviation for grip strength, the stand-up test, and the two-step test increased fall risk by 39%, 23%, and 38%, respectively. In conclusion, diminished physical performance is related to serious problems in older individuals, specifically cognitive deterioration, increased fall risk, and inability to maintain HRQOL. These factors are independent of age and gender. Thus, the higher physical function can be maintained in older people, the better the other conditions appear to remain.