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Background: In the context of the ageing of the French population, physical activity becomes a principal means for maintaining good health. International organisations are thus giving increasing importance to physical activity in programmes of disease-prevention. In parallel with these concerns, studies have shown the impact of sedentary activities (in particularly as a result of the seated position and screen time) on health. Objective: To show the links between physical activity, sedentarism and health indicators and to identify the socio-demographic variables by which they are influenced (particularly gender). Study design: This is a transversal epidemiological study conducted among the French population between 2014 and 2016 by Santé publique France, the national public health agency. Methods: The RPAQ (Recent Physical Activity Questionnaire) was used to measure the physical activity and sedentary lifestyle of individuals. The analyses focus on the behaviours among the population of older adults (55–74 years old, n = 1155). Results: A third of French older adults does not meet the WHO recommended physical activity levels, particularly so among women. The results of this survey point to significant links between health indicators (especially overweight and obesity) and the physical activity level and sedentarity of older adults. From the age of 60, energy expenditure linked to physical activity increases before decreasing from the age of 65. Older adults spend almost 6 hours per day in sedentary activities. The combinations between physical activity and sedentarism highlight four profiles of older adults. The most active profile is the one with the best health indicators. Conclusion: The links between health, sedentarity and physical activity are unequivocal: people who achieve the WHO recommendations for physical activity and spend less than 7 hours each day in sedentary activities are those who also have the best health indicators. These results vary with sociographic characteristics and reveal significant links with health indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Cobalamin deficiency is frequent in elderly patients and the main aetiologies are foodcobalamin malabsorption and pernicious anaemia. The aim of our retrospective study was to identify the causes and methods of management of cobalamin deficiency at Nice geriatric university hospital. Methods: A retrospective monocentric study was conducted over 14 months at Nice geriatric hospital, which included patients with cobalamin deficiency having received supplementation. The clinical and paraclinical data, etiological diagnosis, treatment and follow-up modalities were analyzed retrospectively. Results: We studied 125 elderly patients whose median age was 85.5 ± 7 years. The etiological diagnosis was food-cobalamin malabsorption for 72 patients (57.6 %), nutritional cobalamin deficiency for 15 patients (12 %), pernicious anaemia for 12 patients (9.6 %) and there was no etiological diagnosis for 26 patients (20.8 %). Concerning cobalamin therapy, 111 patients (88.8 %) received oral therapy and 14 (11.2 %) intramuscular therapy. Vitamin B12 levels increased significantly after supplementation (p<0.001) but cobalamin administration varied according to the diagnoses (p<0.001) and was less effective in patients with dementia (p=0.04) and food-cobalamin malabsorption. Conclusion: Our study showed the importance of food-cobalamin malabsorption in etiological diagnosis in accordance with the literature, but also the non-negligible share of nutritional cobalamin deficiency. Mainly oral cobalamin supplementation was used in our study with a significant increase in vitamin B12 levels. An oral cobalamin regimen is proposed for elderly patients with cobalamin deficiency but with no severe neurological signs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of a short-term Intermittent Work Exercise Program (IWEP) among healthy elderly subjects. Study design and setting: This longitudinal prospective study took place at the Strasbourg University Hospital geriatric department. Study participants: One hundred and fifty older volunteers, previously determined as being free from cardiac and pulmonary disease, were separated into two age groups: the 'young senior' (60.2 ± 3.1 yr) and the 'older senior' groups (70.8 ± 5.2 yr).These groups were then subdivided by gender into the 'young female senior', 'young male senior' 'older female senior' and 'older male senior' groups. Intervention: Before and after the IWEP, all subjects were asked to perform an incremental cycle exercise to obtain their first ventilatory threshold (VT), maximal tolerated power (MTP), peak oxygen uptake (VO) and maximal minute ventilation (MMV). The IWEP consisted of a 30-min cycling exercise which took place twice a week, and was divided into six 5-min stages consisting of 4 min at VT intensity and 1 min at 90% MTP. Measurements: An assessment was made of the effects of the IWEP on maximal cardio-respiratory function (MTP, VO, MMV) and endurance parameters (VT, heart rate [HR] measured at pretraining VT and lactate concentrations at pre-training MTP). Results: This short-term training program resulted in a significant increase of MTP (from 13.2% to 20.6%), VO (from 8.9% to 16.6%) and MMV (from 11.1% to 21.8%) in all groups (p<0.05). VT1 improved from 21% at pretraining to 27%, while HR at pre-training VT1 as well as lactate concentrations at pre-training MTP decreased significantly in all groups (p<0.05). The post-training values for VO and MMV of the 'older seniors' were not significantly different (p>0.05) from the 'young seniors' pre-training values for the same parameters. Conclusion: The most striking finding in this study is that after only 9 weeks, our short-term 'individually-tailored' IWEP significantly improved both maximal cardio-respiratory function and endurance parameters in healthy, previously untrained seniors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]