Factors associated with life-space mobility in older adults with chronic respiratory disease: IMIAS study.
Ala' S Aburub, Ricardo Oliveira Guerra, Nailton José Neto and 5 others
Being female, having poor vision, lower physical performance, and rating one's own health poorly were the factors most strongly linked to restricted community mobility in 223 older adults with chronic lung disease.
These are associations from a single time point, not causes.
Key findings
1In the final adjusted model, only four factors were significantly associated with life-space mobility: female sex (B = −7.66), poorer visual acuity (B = −15.12), lower Short Physical Performance Battery score (B = 2.95), and poorer self-rated health (B = −9.02). The model explained 53% of the variance in mobility scores.
2Depression, fear of falling, grip strength, cognition, and all financial variables showed significant differences between the restricted and unrestricted mobility groups in the unadjusted comparison, but none of these remained significant once the four factors above were included in the model.
3The restricted-mobility group (LSA score ≤ 60 on a 0–120 scale) had markedly worse depression (mean 18.5 vs 9.4 on a 0–60 scale), fear of falling (32.5 vs 23.5 on a 16–64 scale), and physical performance (7.6 vs 9.9 on a 0–12 scale) than the unrestricted group.
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What it does not show
Cross-sectional design: all measures were taken at one time point, so none of the four significant factors can be said to cause restricted mobility. The associations could run in either direction. The CRD group mixes COPD, asthma, and chronic bronchitis, so the findings cannot be attributed to any single respiratory condition. Participants were limited to ages 65–74, so the results do not extend to younger or older adults. CRD diagnosis was self-reported rather than confirmed by spirometry or medical records. The LSA cutoff of ≤ 60 was borrowed from COPD-specific studies and may not fit asthma or chronic bronchitis equally well. Sleep disturbance and anxiety, which the authors note may influence mobility, were not measured. The data are secondary; the original IMIAS study was not designed to test these specific associations, and some variables may be missing.
Declared interests
Publication fees were covered by the University of Pécs. No industry funding or commercial sponsorship is declared.
The easy way to misread this
The unadjusted comparison table shows significant differences in depression, fear of falling, grip strength, cognition, and all financial variables between the two mobility groups, but none of these survived the adjusted model. Do not read the bivariate table as a list of independent predictors. Also, because every measure was taken at a single time point, none of the four significant factors can be said to cause restricted mobility. The direction of the association is not established.
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