抄録
It is confirmed that a physiologically normal range of age grows with aging. However, little is known about sex difference in advanced age from the viewpoint of quality of life and physical activity. It is needed to determine the correlation in a clinical setting.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between health-related quality of life (QOL) and daily physical activities in normal male and female elderly community-dwelling subjects in Osaka. Thirty-two men (mean age (standard deviation); 73.7 years (5.8 years)) and 37 women (69.7 years (4.8 years)) volunteered to take part in this investigation. As QOL parameter, Zung Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Life
Satisfaction Index-Z (LSI), Visual Analogue Scale of Happiness (VAS) and grip strength (Grip) of a participant's dominant hand were selected. Actigaphic recordings (Actigraph) were carried out as a parameter of daily physical activity of the subjects for 3 through 5 consecutive days and nights. No significant difference was found in SDS, LSI, and VAS between the two sexes, whereas both Grip and Actigraph differed significantly at the level less than 0.01. Moreover, the men's partial correlation with Actigraph showed relatively negative in SDS (r =-0.55) and weakly negative in VAS and Grip, and almost small positive in LSI (r =-0.30, -0.37 and r = 0.06, respectively). On the other hand, the women's coefficient (-0.11<r<0.19) was hardly demonstrated in any parameter.
These results suggest that SDS may be exerted appreciably greater effect on the men's daily activities and their clinical actigraphic status may be more relatively related to the QOL measures than the women's.17
