University Times

Thousands of senior athletes — ranging from 50-year-old sprinters to "100-something" shuffleboarders — are competing in the national senior olympics in Baton Rouge, La.

Scrutinizing their performances are UPMC Health System sports medicine researchers, who are collecting data for the first large-scale health and injury survey of senior athletes.

More than 9,000 senior athletes are being asked to complete surveys designed by UPMC's Senior Sports and Fitness Program. The program's medical director, Peter Z. Cohen, said this marks the beginning of a collaboration between UPMC and the National Senior Games Association (NSGA) to develop research and education programs promoting sports and fitness for older people across the country.

NSGA sanctions and coordinates U.S. senior games organizations. Athletes aged 50 and older who qualify at city and state levels are eligible to compete within various age groups at the National Senior Games.

Baton Rouge is hosting this year's games, July 14-28, mainly on the Louisiana State University campus. UPMC's Center for Sports Medicine is leading an effort to make Pittsburgh a future host city for the Summer National Senior Games, which have been held every two years since 1987.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey has endorsed the center's effort, and NSGA representatives say Pittsburgh will be among 40 cities invited to submit bids by November for the 2005 and 2007 games.

"It's a good fit all around," said Cohen, a Pitt professor of orthopaedic surgery. "The NSGA wanted to do a comprehensive personal health and injury survey of senior athletes, but lacked the resources. UPMC, with its sports medicine center, and Pitt, with its Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, are more than capable of doing this kind of research. This is an ideal project for us, because Allegheny County has one of the oldest populations in the United States.

"This is virgin territory," Cohen emphasized. "A lot of research has been done on younger athletes, from teens to middle-aged people, but no one has ever done extensive research on senior athletes. It's going to be quite interesting, once we compile the data we're gathering during these games, to find out what makes senior athletes tick, what makes them different from the rest of the older population.

"We will have a national database that we and the NSGA and other organizations can use, and add to, over the years."

Physicians know that exercise and good nutrition can slow, and even reverse, physiological and psychological changes of normal aging, while fending off illness, Cohen noted. "It's been shown, for example, that aerobic exercise can make your heart as efficient at age 60 as the heart of a sedentary person who's 25 years old," he said.

But researchers know little about senior athletes' injuries: types of injuries commonly sustained by older athletes, ways to prevent injuries and their recurrence, optimal treatment and rehabilitation, and factors that influence a senior athlete's return to exercise.

"A lot is known about the college athlete's ACL [anterior cruciate ligament], but not much is known about the elderly person's ACL or how, if it's injured, it should best be treated," Cohen said.

"We believe that injury is the most common reason that seniors stop exercising. Even at a young age, if you get sick or injured and you don't work out, you lose conditioning. That process is much more severe in an elderly person. While a young person may be able to bounce back from an injury in a short time, a senior can't do that, physically or psychologically."

Among the 355 Pennsylvanians registered for this month's senior olympics, only nine are Pittsburgh residents. Cohen attributed the low local participation rate to several factors:

* Economics. Athletes must pay their own way to participate in the National Senior Games, and older residents of Sunbelt states tend to be more prosperous than those in southwestern Pennsylvania

* The senior games' low profile here. "It's a well-kept secret that the city of Pittsburgh holds its own senior games as qualifying events for the state and national games," Cohen said. "We need to do a better job of publicizing our local competitions."

* A lack of senior-friendly workout facilities. "Most older people aren't comfortable at gyms that cater to beautiful young teenybopper bodies. Seniors prefer to exercise among people their own age, and there don't seem to be many facilities offering that around here," Cohen said.

* Poor health habits among older people here. Cohen said there's a lot of truth to the cliche that many Allegheny County residents are still living in the 1950s in terms of diet and exercise.

"Physicians also need to do a better job of educating older patients about how exercise helps their cardiovascular systems and pulmonary systems, how it increases bone strength and helps in controlling weight and diabetes," Cohen said.

He suggested that some doctors who freely prescribe pills and probe private parts suddenly become shy when discussing weight. "I think a lot of what you see, in terms of people here becoming overweight and out of shape, has to do with physicians not wanting to hurt patients' feelings by advising them to lose some pounds and get exercise," Cohen said. "My own belief is that physicians are supposed to get personal. They're not supposed to be offensive."

Cohen, an orthopaedic surgeon for 30 years, likes to tell patients and lecture audiences: "We haven't found a fountain of youth yet. Until we do, exercise is the best thing we've got."

— Bruce Steele