Abstract des Autors

An adequate level of daily physical activity is important for health maintenance in the elderly. Investigation of the relationship between daily physical activity and health requires an objective and reliable method for the assessment of physical activity under conditions of daily living with minimal discomfort to subjects. Besides the measurement of average daily metabolic rate with doubly labelled water, the use of body-fixed accelerometers for the registration of body movement offers the best possibilities for this purpose. The application of body-fixed accelerometers for physical activity assessment in the elderly was illustrated in a laboratory study on the effects of ageing on body movement and energy expenditure during physical activity. A strong relationship between these variables was found for both young and elderly men (r=0.87 and r=0.89 respectively; p<0.05). In addition, it was possible to quantify age-dependent differences in the performance of activities from registrations of body movement in time. Verf.-Referat