A ten - year comprehensive study of the community elderly

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In order to specify factors accelerating and decelerating aging process and to verify etiology of geriatric diseases and chronic conditions, a multidisciplinary longitudinal study was begun in 1976, in Koganei City, a suburb of Tokyo.Subjects were 422 (males 197, females 225) elders aged 69 - 71 years, living at home in 1976. They were investigated on multidisciplinary basis of medical, sociological, and psychological disciplines. They were re - examined in 1981 and 1986, during which time the outcome of the non -respondents to follow-ups was also investigated.A hundred and two out of 422 subjects died during 10 years. Low serum albumin, weak grip strength, bad memory and low level of social activities at the base - line contributed to higher mortality. E C G abnormalities were also risk foctors for death.Low level of social activities in both sexes, history of hypertension in males, and overweight in females at the base-line predicted decline of activities of daily living in the survivors 10 years later. Another cohort of same age range as subjects enrolled in 1976 was recruited in 1981. They were examined as in same procedure as the survey in 1976.In 1986, we could compare difference of velocity in aging from ages 70 to 75 between the first and the second cohorts.Some biological markers of aging ie; serum albumin, height etc demonstrated that aging was slower in the second cohort than in the first cohort. It is evident that there is a cohort diffence of aging in the Japanese elderly. Longitudinal studies, therefore, are essential for looking into aging.