Doctoral Dissertation Research: Aging, activity patterns and function in modern foragers

生活方式的方方面面在塑造个人衰老方面发挥着重要作用，但我们对人类衰老的大部分了解来自于与工业化人口的合作，这些人并不代表现代人类参与的所有生活方式。这个博士论文项目将研究非工业化人口中的人类老龄化，并评估生活方式的各个方面如何影响与年龄相关的身体和认知功能模式。这个项目将帮助创建一幅更广泛的图景，了解人类如何在一系列生物社会背景下经历变老，从而促进我们对人类衰老的基础知识。该项目将通过检查老龄化的某些方面是否可以通过生活方式元素来缓解，从而为公共卫生研究提供信息。此外，通过采用跨学科方法研究老龄化，该项目将加强几个机构和部门之间的研究基础设施联系，并有助于妇女在STEM领域的专业发展。在工业化人口中，年龄的增长与身体和认知功能的下降有关，这些功能限制了独立性，增加了残疾的风险。大规模的流行病学研究表明，从事高水平的体力活动(PA)可能会缓解与年龄相关的机能下降。因此，目前尚不清楚工业化人口中出现的与年龄相关的功能衰退是人类衰老的必然方面，还是久坐不动的工业化生活方式的副产品。这个项目将研究狩猎-采集人群中生活方式和老龄化的变化，目前包括继续从事全职觅食的成员，以及参与更多市场整合的生活方式但对觅食的依赖较少的其他成员。该项目测试了最重要的假设，即传统觅食行为中参与的变化与独特的PA特征有关，这有利于与年龄相关的身体和认知功能模式。研究人员将从从事不同数量觅食的社区招募参与者(18岁以上)，参与者将完成身体和认知功能的测试。参与者还将佩戴加速计几天，让研究人员能够表征PA的模式。研究人员将比较非工业化人口和工业化人口与年龄相关的功能模式，并评估觅食量是否与与年龄相关的功能模式的变化有关。他们还将使用正式的调解分析来评估PA的模式如何影响年龄、功能和觅食量之间的关系。这一裁决反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Aspects of lifestyle play an important role in shaping how individuals age, but most of what we know about human senescence stems from work with industrialized populations, who do not represent the full range of lifestyles modern humans engage in. This doctoral dissertation project will examine human aging in a non-industrialized population, and evaluate how aspects of lifestyle contribute to age-related patterns of physical and cognitive function. This project will help create a broader picture of how humans experience growing older across a range of biosocial contexts, and so advance our fundamental knowledge about human senescence. The project will inform public health research by examining whether certain aspects of aging can be mitigated through elements of lifestyle. Furthermore, by employing an interdisciplinary approach to the study of aging, this project will strengthen research infrastructure ties among several institutions and departments, and also contribute to the professional development of women in STEM fields. In industrialized populations, growing older is associated with declines in physical and cognitive function that limit independence and increase risk of disability. Large-scale epidemiological studies indicate that engaging in high levels of physical activity (PA) may attenuate age-related declines in function. It is not clear, then, whether the age-related functional declines seen in industrialized populations are inevitable aspects of human senescence or by-products of sedentary industrialized lifestyles. This project will examine variation in lifestyle and aging in hunter-gatherer populations that currently include members who continue to engage in full-time foraging, and others who engage in more market-integrated lifestyles with less reliance on foraging. The project tests the overarching hypothesis that variation in engagement in traditional foraging practices is associated with distinctive PA profiles that benefit age-related patterns of physical and cognitive function. Researchers will recruit participants (ages 18+) from communities who engage in different amounts of foraging, and participants will complete tests of physical and cognitive function. Participants will also wear an accelerometer for several days, allowing researchers to characterize patterns of PA. The researchers will compare age-related patterns of function for non-industrialized and industrialized populations, as well as assess whether amount of foraging is related to variation in age-related patterns of function. They will also use formal mediation analyses to assess how patterns of PA influence the relationship between age, function, and amount of foraging.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.