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Advancing research to understand the impact of lifetime physical activity patterns on health is essential. While some progress on the topic has been made, further research is nevertheless warranted. Openly accessible operational resources for processing and analysing longitudinal physical activity data would help advance the field. The Lifetime Total Physical Activity Questionnaire (LTPAQ) provides an in-depth and detailed record of occupational/volunteer, household and recreational physical activities conducted across the lifespan. Despite the authors describing a specific code for physical activity data processing, its lack of comprehensiveness hinders its implementation by researchers or health professionals with limited programming or software expertise. For this purpose, we aimed to develop an open-source MATLAB code to simplify data handling and enhance comparability between studies using the LTPAQ. The source code of the LTPAQ analysis is accessible on our Git repository (https://github.com/coralsanchezmartin/LTPAQ_MATLAB_code). This code automates data handling, ensuring efficiency and facilitating adaptability. Moreover, it interacts seamlessly with Microsoft Excel sheets, providing a user-friendly interface for data input, storage, and organisation. This approach, combined with ongoing efforts to refine the code, seeks to overcome LTPAQ's scoring complexities, and promote a standardised methodology. By facilitating the processing of physical activity data from this questionnaire, our tool is expected to encourage its application in epidemiological studies and foster new insights into the impact of lifestyle from a life course perspective, ultimately playing a crucial role in shaping public health policies and enhancing clinical practice.

Abstract Background Although the metabolic equivalents (METs) system is a common procedure to quantify the intensity of physical activity in older adults, it remains unclear whether the conventional METs intensity thresholds (CTs) used for this purpose are appropriate in this population. Therefore, this study aimed (i) to derive overall and fitness-specific METs intensity thresholds in older adults ≥ 60 years old (OATs) expressed both in standard METs (VO2/3.5 mL O2·kg−1·min−1) and older adults METs60+ (VO2/2.7 mL O2·kg−1·min−1), and (ii) to compare them with the CTs. Methods A total of 93 subjects were assessed for cardiorespiratory fitness. Graded exercise test protocols using indirect calorimetry were performed to calculate individual VO2max and categorize subjects as "very poor/fair" or "good/superior" fitness. Overall and fitness-specific OATs expressed in standard METs (OATsstandard) and METs60+ (OATs60+) were derived based on the %VO2max and the ventilatory thresholds (VTs) physical intensity categories. Results Significantly higher VO2max, VO2 at VT1 and VO2 at VT2 (p

Abstract Background Although supervised exercise is frequently recommended for older adults, its superiority over unsupervised exercise remains uncertain. Furthermore, whether motivational techniques could help to enhance the effectiveness of the latter remains to be elucidated. The present randomized controlled trial aims to determine the role of supervision and motivational strategies on the safety, adherence, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of different exercise programs for improving physical and mental health in older adults. Methods Participants (n = 120, aged 60–75 years) will be randomly allocated into five groups: 1-Control (CON), 2-Supervised exercise without motivational intervention (SUP), 3- Supervised exercise with motivational intervention (SUP +), 4- Unsupervised exercise without motivational intervention (UNSUP) and 5- Unsupervised exercise with motivational intervention (UNSUP +). Over 24 weeks, all exercise groups will participate in a multicomponent exercise program three times/week (performed in group classes at a center for SUP and SUP + , or home without supervision but with the help of a mobile app for UNSUP and UNSUP +), while the CON group will maintain their usual lifestyle. The motivational intervention (for SUP + and UNSUP + groups) will be based on the self-determination theory, including strategies such as phone calls, interactive workshops, motivational messages, informative infographics and videos. Primary outcomes will include safety, adherence, costs, and lower-body muscular function using a leg press machine. Secondary outcomes will include upper-body muscular function, physical and cardiorespiratory function, blood pressure and heart rate, body composition, health-related quality of life, cognitive performance, anxiety, depression, physical activity levels, sleep and sedentarism, biochemical markers, motivators and barriers to exercise. Assessments will be conducted at baseline, mid-intervention (i.e., week 13), at the end of the intervention (i.e., week 25), and 24 weeks later (i.e., week 49). Discussion The findings of this trial might provide valuable insights into the role of supervision and motivational strategies on the effectiveness of exercise programs for older adults. Additionally, the study could contribute to developing cost-effective interventions, supporting the design of future public policies for healthy aging. Trial registration NCT05619250. Registered 16 November 2022.

Estimating lower-limb muscle power during sit-to-stand (STS) tests is feasible for large-scale implementation. This study investigated 1) whether age, functional limitations and sex have an influence on the movement strategy and power production during STS; and 2) potential differences between STS power estimated with either a simple equation or a sensor. Five-repetition STS data of 649 subjects (♂352 ♀297) aged 19 to 93 years were included. Subjects were divided in different age groups and levels of functioning. A body-fixed sensor measured (sub)durations, trunk movement (flexion/extension) and STS muscle power (Psensor). Additionally, mean STS muscle power was calculated by a mathematic equation (Alcazar et al., 2018b)Pformula.Results revealed that 1) older subjects and women showed greater trunk flexion before standing up than younger subjects and men, respectively (both p

This editorial presents some methodological issues that should be considered when performing physical exercise in people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and raises the need for specific knowledge to adjust the protocols and training programs used in this population.