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Fatigue in older adults: an early indicator of the aging process?

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give an overview of research on fatigue in older adults, with a focus on fatigue as an early indicator of the aging process. Fatigue is a strong predictor of functional limitations, disability, mortality, and other adverse outcomes in young-old and old-old populations, between men and women, and in different geographic localities. Several biological, physiological and social explanations are proposed: fatigue may be seen not only as a self-reported indicator of frailty, defined as a physiologic state of increased vulnerability to stressors, which results from decreased physiologic reserves and even dysregulation of multiple physiologic systems, but also this state may be accelerated because of the cumulative impact of social, mental and biological factors throughout life.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Medicine, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Nørre Farimagsgade 5, P.O. 2099, 1014, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Kirsten Avlund DrMedSci

  2. Research Centre for Prevention and Health, Copenhagen County, Denmark

    Kirsten Avlund DrMedSci

  3. Danish Aging Research Centre, University of Aarhus, Odense and Copenhagen, Denmark

    Kirsten Avlund DrMedSci

  4. Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

    Kirsten Avlund DrMedSci

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Correspondence to Kirsten Avlund DrMedSci.

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Review article based on the 5th Andrus Viidik Lecture in Gerontology, given by K. Avlund at the 20th Nordic Congress of Gerontology, Reykjavik, Iceland, May 30–June 2, 2010. The Nordic Gerontological Federation (NGF) initiated these lectures when Professor Viidik retired from the NGF, after having been its Secretary (1974–1988) and Chairman (1988–2002).

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Avlund, K. Fatigue in older adults: an early indicator of the aging process?. Aging Clin Exp Res 22, 100–115 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324782

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