Doctoral Dissertation Research: Aging, activity patterns and function in modern foragers

Aspects of lifestyle play an important role in shaping how individuals age, but most of what we know about human senescence stems from work with industrialized populations, who do not represent the full range of lifestyles modern humans engage in. This doctoral dissertation project will examine human aging in a non-industrialized population, and evaluate how aspects of lifestyle contribute to age-related patterns of physical and cognitive function.

This project will help create a broader picture of how humans experience growing older across a range of biosocial contexts, and so advance our fundamental knowledge about human senescence. The project will inform public health research by examining whether certain aspects of aging can be mitigated through elements of lifestyle. Furthermore, by employing an interdisciplinary approach to the study of aging, this project will strengthen research infrastructure ties among several institutions and departments, and also contribute to the professional development of women in STEM fields.

In industrialized populations, growing older is associated with declines in physical and cognitive function that limit independence and increase risk of disability. Large-scale epidemiological studies indicate that engaging in high levels of physical activity (PA) may attenuate age-related declines in function. It is not clear, then, whether the age-related functional declines seen in industrialized populations are inevitable aspects of human senescence or by-products of sedentary industrialized lifestyles.

This project will examine variation in lifestyle and aging in hunter-gatherer populations that currently include members who continue to engage in full-time foraging, and others who engage in more market-integrated lifestyles with less reliance on foraging. The project tests the overarching hypothesis that variation in engagement in traditional foraging practices is associated with distinctive PA profiles that benefit age-related patterns of physical and cognitive function.

Researchers will recruit participants (ages 18+) from communities who engage in different amounts of foraging, and participants will complete tests of physical and cognitive function. Participants will also wear an accelerometer for several days, allowing researchers to characterize patterns of PA. The researchers will compare age-related patterns of function for non-industrialized and industrialized populations, as well as assess whether amount of foraging is related to variation in age-related patterns of function.

They will also use formal mediation analyses to assess how patterns of PA influence the relationship between age, function, and amount of foraging.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.