ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2006
Middle-aged and mobility-limited: prevalence of disability and symptom attributions in a national survey.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03430271 (ENhancing Independence Using Group-based Community Interventions for Healthy AGing in Elders), which is not on this map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
ENhancing Independence Using Group-based Community Interventions for Healthy AGing in Elders: The ENGAGE Pilot Study
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between Comorbidity Indices and Functional Autonomy in Individuals with Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2024Pooled it
- Respiratory muscle endurance training improves exercise performance but does not affect resting blood pressure and sleep in healthy active elderly.European journal of applied physiology · 2022Trial
- Effect of Behaviorally Designed Gamification With a Social Support Partner to Increase Mobility After Hospital Discharge: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2021Trial
- Clinical meaningfulness of the changes in muscle performance and physical function associated with testosterone administration in older men with mobility limitation.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2011Trial
- Adverse events associated with testosterone administration.The New England journal of medicine · 2010Trial
- Prevalence of mobility limitations among the elderly in Saudi Arabia: A secondary analysis of the 2025 Elderly Survey.Medicine · 2026Article
- Prospective associations between accelerometer-measured physical activity, sedentary behavior, and healthy longevity: the Women's Health Accelerometry Collaboration.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2025Article
- Development of a physical performance summary score in middle age: Findings from the CARDIA Function study.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- A scoping review and synthesis of the literature on the relation between mobility impairment and cognitive impairment.Disability and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Smartphone-Based Analysis for Early Detection of Aging Impact on Gait and Stair Negotiation: A Cross-Sectional Study.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Study protocol: associations between hormonal profile and physical and cognitive functions in middle-aged men-a one-year cohort follow-up study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Use of the Brief-BESTest partially instrumented with accelerometry to detect balance deterioration in middle-age.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2024Article
- Clustering by multiple long-term conditions and social care needs: a cross-sectional study among 10 026 older adults in England.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2023Article
- Peroneal muscle response to single-leg drop-jump and unexpected leg-drop in young and middle-aged adults before and after one session of neuromuscular training.European review of aging and physical activity : official journal of the European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity · 2023Article
- Migration status, physical limitations and associated self-rated health: a study of older Indian adults.BMC geriatrics · 2023Article
- Physical functioning as a predictor of retirement: Has its importance changed over a thirty-year period in Sweden?European journal of ageing · 2022Article
- Article
- Cross-Sectional Examination of Musculoskeletal Pain and Physical Function in a Racially and Socioeconomically Diverse Sample of Adults.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2021Article
- Article
- The Dynamic Motor Control Index as a Marker of Age-Related Neuromuscular Impairment.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLower limb mobility disabilities are well understood in older people, but the causes in middle age have attracted little attention.
objectivesTo estimate the prevalence of mobility disabilities among noninstitutionalized adults in England and to compare the disabling symptoms reported by middle-aged and older people.
designCross-sectional data from the 2002 English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Mobility disability was identified by level of reported difficulty walking a quarter mile.
participantsEleven thousand two hundred sixteen respondents aged 50 years and older living in private households in 2002.
resultsThe prevalence of difficulty walking a quarter mile increases sharply with age, but even in the middle-aged (50 to 64 years age-group) 18% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 16% to 19%) of men and 19% (95% CI: 17% to 20%) of women reported some degree of difficulty. Of the 16 main symptoms reported as causing mobility disability in middle age, 2 dominated: pain in the leg or the foot (43%; 95% CI: 40% to 46%) and shortness of breath/dyspnea (21%; 95% CI: 18% to 23%). Fatigue or tiredness, and stability problems were cited by only 5% and 6%, respectively. These proportions were slightly different from those in the 65 to 79-year age group: 40%, 23%, 6%, and 8%, respectively.
conclusionsMobility (walking) disabilities in the middle-aged are relatively common. The symptoms reported as causes in this age group differ little from those reported by older groups, and are dominated by lower limb pain and shortness of breath. More clinical attention paid to disabling symptoms may lead to disability reductions in later life.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.