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

生活方式的各个方面在塑造个体的衰老过程中发挥着重要作用，但我们对人类衰老的了解大多来自于对工业化人群的研究，他们并不能代表现代人的全部生活方式。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。这个项目将有助于在一系列生物社会背景下，更广泛地了解人类是如何经历衰老的，从而推进我们对人类衰老的基本认识。该项目将通过检查是否可以通过生活方式的要素来缓解衰老的某些方面，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，并有助于女性在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，这限制了独立性，增加了残疾的风险。大规模流行病学研究表明，从事高水平的体育活动（PA）可能会减弱与年龄相关的功能下降。因此，工业化人群中与年龄相关的功能衰退是人类衰老不可避免的方面，还是久坐不动的工业化生活方式的副产品，目前还不清楚。该项目将研究狩猎采集人口的生活方式变化和老龄化，目前包括继续从事全职觅食的成员，以及从事更多市场一体化生活方式，较少依赖于觅食的其他人。该项目测试了一个总体假设，即传统觅食行为的变化与独特的PA档案有关，这些档案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觅食量的社区招募参与者（18岁以上），参与者将完成身体和认知功能测试。参与者还将佩戴加速度计数天，使研究人员能够描述PA的模式。研究人员将比较非工业化人口和工业化人口的年龄相关功能模式，并评估觅食量是否与年龄相关功能模式的变化有关。他们还将使用正式的中介分析来评估PA模式如何影响年龄、功能和觅食量之间的关系。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.