Original scientific paper
Sex and gender differences in tempos of ageing of Moscow population and their biosocial meaning: a pilot study.
Marina Negasheva
; Department of Anthropology, Biological faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Elena Godina
; Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Natalia Lapshina
; Department of Anthropology, Biological faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Abstract
The aim of the present paper is to study sex and gender differences in the biological age and tempos of ageing in men and women of Moscow population. The study is based on the integrated medical-anthropological survey of 69 males from 41 to 92 years of age and 157 females from 41 to 97 years of age, inhabitants of Moscow, examined in 2012. The program included the following: anthropometric measurements (height and weight, waist and hip circumferences); the whole-body impedance was measured on the right hand side of the body using the bioimpedance meter ABC-01 ‘Medas’ (SRC Medas, Russia); functional characteristics of cardiovascular systems: systolic and diastolic blood pressure (mmHg), heart rate (beats per min); hand grip strength for right and left hands measured with the hand dynamometer; estimation of biological age was performed with the software “Diagnostics of Aging. BioAge”, which was developed by the National Centre of Gerontology (Moscow) and included the set of functional biomarkers of cardiovascular and respiratory systems; questionnaire: type of work (mental or physical labour), number of children per family, age at the birth of the first child, father’s and mother’s longevity. According to the results of this study, in Moscow males there was a tendency to higher intensity of ageing processes as compared to Moscow females. Tempos of age changes in several morphofunctional characteristics (systolic blood pressure, hearing acuity and hand grip strength) were different for both sexes and higher in males. In men there was a higher frequency of individuals with accelerated tempos of ageing (20% vs 12% in women). Higher tempos of ageing in men were much more expressed after 60 years of age, which could be explained by different gender roles and the influence of socioeconomic factors. Among socioeconomic factors, the most important were the following ones: type of work and number of children per family. Slow tempos of aging were more typical for men and women, who most of their life were involved in mental labour and had only one child.
Keywords
biological age; tempos of ageing; gender differences
Hrčak ID:
180621
URI
Publication date:
27.12.2016.
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