Exam 4: Exercise and Aging

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Potential consequences of muscle loss as people age include weakness and loss of functioning and independence. For example, without leg strength, an older adult may not have the strength to get up from a chair, carry groceries, pick up household items, twist off jar lids, and make minor repairs. There is also the potential for older adults to develop a condition called sarcopenia, which is the gradual loss of muscle mass with age, which is replaced by fat. Sarcopenia is associated with insulin resistance, fatigue, falls, and premature death.

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Many studies, for instance, are epidemiological in nature and reveal correlation rather than causality. Correlation does not equal causation. Methodological limitations are also common among exercise studies. For example:
Many of these studies utilize unrepresentative samples, often relying on volunteers;
They lack randomization between treatment and control groups;
The studies are unblinded (do not restrict awareness of who is a treatment group member versus a control group member);
They employ inadequate measurement tools, especially a reliance on self-reports; and
Several studies report high dropout rates or do not include dropouts in the data analysis (this would be a more rigorous type of study called intention-to-treat analysis). Some of the exercise in these studies, therefore, may not be producing the results reported.