Masters athletes: Exemplars of successful adult aging?

The aging global population and the associated health issues that inevitably emerge in later life positions “successful aging” research as a public health priority. Although not definitively defined within the multidisciplinary gerontology literature, successful aging is broadly conceptualized as a multidimensional health-related phenomenon that adults desire as they age chronologically. Masters athletes systematically train for and regularly compete in masters sporting events that are specifically designed for adults who exceed the age at which elite, winning, open-age sport performances are typically achieved. Based on their capacity to continue participating in sport well into later life, sports science researchers have regularly characterized masters athletes as models or exemplars of successful aging, and suggested that it was the sport that masters athletes trained for and competed in that was promoting their successful aging. The successful aging research on masters athletes that has been conducted to date has consisted of literature reviews, typically focused on older (age > 60 years) masters athletes who participate in individual endurance-oriented masters sport, and characterized successful aging narrowly as high physiological functioning. Therefore, to determine if masters sport promotes, and masters athletes exemplify, successful aging from a multidimensional perspective, primary research on a broader range of masters athletes with respect to their age and the sports they participate in, using a multidimensional model of successful aging, is required. To address this gap in knowledge, the current thesis presents four related studies (manuscripts 1 to 4) that investigated the following research questions, respectively: (1) How is successful aging defined within the multidisciplinary gerontology literature, and can masters athletes be considered to be exemplars of successful aging according to the identified definition? (2) Is the model of successful aging that is comprised of physical, psychological, cognitive, and social functioning factors an appropriate approach to use in future successful aging research on masters athletes? (3) Is the model of successful aging that is comprised of physical, psychological, cognitive, and social functioning factors an appropriate approach to use in future experimental successful aging research on masters athletes and non-sporting adults, and do masters athletes have higher functioning across the specified domains than non-sporting adults? (4) Does a 12-week masters cycling intervention promote successful aging across physical, psychological, cognitive, and social functioning domains compared to a recreational cycling control condition? Chapter 2 (manuscript 1) is a literature review which concludes that successful aging could be operationally defined as a late-life process of change characterized by high physical, psychological, cognitive, and social functioning. Moreover, masters athletes were found to be likely exemplars of successful aging according to this multidimensional model of successful aging. Chapter 3 (manuscript 2) indicates that the model of successful aging that was comprised of physical, psychological, cognitive, and social functioning factors (proposed in chapter 2) was stronger than three plausible alternative models to use in future successful aging research on masters swimmers. Chapter 4 (manuscript 3) suggests that the model of successful aging that was confirmed in chapter 3 as an appropriate approach to conduct successful aging research on masters swimmers was also well suited to the measurement of a representative sample of masters athletes and a convenience sample of non-sporting adults. Moreover, masters athletes had significantly higher physical and social functioning, but not higher psychological and cognitive functioning than non-sporting adults. Finally, in line with the cross-sectional data from chapter 4, chapter 5 (manuscript 4) found that engagement in masters cycling by mid-aged recreational cyclists promoted significantly higher physical and social functioning, but not higher cognitive or psychological functioning, compared to recreational cycling controls. The findings suggest that masters sport participation promotes high physical and social functioning throughout adulthood, and potentially high cognitive and psychological functioning later in life. Therefore, the masters athletes studied within the present thesis were not exemplars of successful aging relative to non-sporting adults across all of the physical, psychological, cognitive, and social functioning domains simultaneously. However, this thesis indicates that it is valuable and necessary to conduct further experimental research on the effects of a broader range of masters sports on aging trajectory. Such research should employ larger samples and more objective measures of the four domains of successful aging to more comprehensively investigate if masters athletes are exemplars of successful adult aging.