Anna Mulasso

University of Turin | UNITO · Department of Medical Science

Please cite this article as: P.R. Brustio, M. Stival, M. Cardinale, et al., Performance pathways in elite middle-and long-distance track and field athletes: the influence of a successful youth, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (2024), https://doi. Abstract word count: 249 Manuscript word count: 3321 Number of Tables: 1 Number of Figures: 2...

Background: Physical activity could increase the production of oxidative stress biomarkers, affecting the metabolism and excretion of antiretroviral drugs and, consequently, the clinical outcome. Nowadays, people living with HIV (PLWH) are mostly switching from triple to dual therapy, but no data are available in terms of physical functioning and o...

This study investigates changes in physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior in an Italian university community during Phase 1 of SARS-CoV-2 lockdown (“stay at home” government decree, from March 8th to May 4th, 2020) compared to their habits prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. We also examine differences according to gender, university position, B...

The present cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the impact of physical activity level (PA) on physical fitness by controlling for individual characteristics in Italian children. A total of 329 children (girls n = 155, 42,6%; from five primary schools, 17 classes) aged 8–10 filled out the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C...

The general population, but especially older adults, were forced or encouraged to stay home during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, indoor mobility (IM, the number of steps performed daily at home) may be informative about the general health status of older adults. The present study aimed at evaluating the relationship between IM, fra...

Introduction Movement screening to identify abnormal movement patterns can inform development of effective interventions. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using a movement screening tool in combination with a tailored movement control retraining programme in young soccer and rugby football players. A secondary...

Background: Frailty is a well-known condition that leads to a lack of resilience, with a reduced homeostatic capacity and a consequent higher risk of suffering adverse health outcomes. This study investigated the effectiveness of an exercise program to improve and reverse physical frailty amongst Italian older adults. Methods: One hundred and tw...

The present study aimed to determine a cut-off value following the filling in of a questionnaire (PAQ-C-It) to identify active Italian children. One-hundred-twenty-nine primary school children (5 Piedmont schools; 47.3% female; mean age = 10 ± 1 years) wore an accelerometer (Actigraph wGT3X-BT) to objectively quantify individual moderate-to-vigorou...

In Italy, COVID-19 lockdown was imposed from 8 March until 3 May 2020 with negative consequences on the lifestyles and health of people. Within this context, the paper aims: (i) to analyse the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on perceived weight changes; (ii) to evaluate factors associated with the perception of weight changes (Body Mass Index (BMI), sl...

The Daily Mile is a promising initiative aimed at removing some of the barriers to physical activity in the school setting. This quasi-experimental study investigated the dose–effect of The Daily Mile on cardiorespiratory fitness, waist-to-height ratio, and body mass index (BMI) after a period of 3- and 6-months. A total of 279 students (mean age =...

Physical frailty represents a clinical condition among older adults leading to adverse health outcomes, such as autonomy loss. To evaluate physical frailty in older adults, adopting information and communication technologies (ICT) may be useful. ADAMO (Caretek S.r.l.) is a care-watch accelerometer that allows to measure mobility in a non-intrusive...

The Daily Mile™ is an innovative school-based intervention that requires children to run or jog outside for 15 min at a self-selected pace during class time. Today, only one study has investigated the efficacy of The Daily Mile on physical fitness, which was conducted with Scottish children. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the feasibility and effectiven...

The relative age effect (RAE) is a common phenomenon observed in youth sports and is characterized by a significant over-representation of athletes born close to the date of selection. However, there is a lack of research on RAE in world-class track and field athletes and it is not clear if this effect persists into adulthood. Thus, this study exam...

Background: Frailty is a clinical condition among older adults defined as the loss of resources in one or more domains (i.e., physical, psychological and social domains) of individual functioning. In frail subjects emergency situations and mobility levels need to be carefully monitored. This study aimed to: i) evaluate differences in the mobility i...

The motivation to perform physical activity is a crucial factor in achieving a persistent active lifestyle. However, motivation decreases with increasing age from childhood to adolescence. The promotion of physical activity in educational settings might be an important tool to increase motivation and, consequently, to decrease sedentary behavior. T...

Data from participants in this study. (PDF)

Frailty increases individual vulnerability to external stressors and involves high risk for adverse geriatric outcomes. To date, few studies have addressed the role of emotion perception and its association with frailty in aged populations. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore whether a significant association between frailty and emotional e...

Aim: The present study aimed, first, to compare the ability to predict falls over 12 months for three measures - mobility, balance and frailty. Second, among the three domains of frailty - physical, psychological and social - we investigated what is the strongest predictor of falls. Methods: A total of 192 community-dwelling older adults (age 73...

Aim. This study aimed, firstly, to compare the ability to predict falls over 12-months for three measures – mobility, balance, and frailty. Secondly, among the three domains of frailty – physical, psychological, and social - we investigated what is the strongest predictor of falls. Methods. One hundred ninety-two community-dwelling older adults (ag...

Abstract: Intra-individual variability is a central topic in Dynamic Systems studies of human development, because the theory predicts that particular forms or properties of intra-individual variability will serve as indicators or predictors of transitions, bifurcations, and stable states in individual development. Currently, there are almost no st...

Cognitive frailty is the simultaneous clinical manifestation of both physical frailty and cognitive impairment. This paper aimed to propose and test an operational definition of cognitive frailty. The following specific aims were pursued: (i) to rate the prevalence of cognitive frailty; (ii) to evaluate differences in cognitive functioning among ro...

Purpose Frailty is a condition characterized by loss of functional reserve and altered homeostatic capacity. The aging process is related with complex indicators of physiological state. This study aims, with a preliminary mediation model, to reveal the possible role of mediator of health perceptions variability in the relationship between frailty a...

Frailty has been recognized as a risk factor for geriatric adverse events. Little is known of the role of psychosocial factors associated with frailty in explaining negative outcomes of aging. This study was aimed at 1) evaluating the differences in psychosocial factors among robust, prefrail, and frail individuals and 2) investigating whether ther...

Objective: Falls are a serious health problem for older adults. Several studies have identified the decline of postural balance as one of the main risk factors for falls. Contrary to what may be believed, the capability of force platform measurements to predict falls remains uncertain. The focus of this narrative review is the identification of po...

Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) is a person-centered concept. The analysis of HRQOL is highly relevant in the aged population, which is generally suffering from health decline. Starting from a conceptual dynamic systems model that describes the development of HRQOL in individuals over time, this study aims to develop and test a quantitative...

Background: over the years a plethora of frailty assessment tools has been developed. These instruments can be basically grouped into unidimensional, based on the physical-biological dimension, and multidimensional conceptualization, based on the connections among the physical, psychological, and social domains. At now, studies on the comparison be...

This study aims to investigate the effects of a physical exercise programme on psychological health of subjects with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), analysing the direct effects of physical exercise on quality of life (QoL) and on depression, and the moderating effects of the disability level in the relationship between physical training and psychological...

The Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) is a self-report questionnaire for screening frailty in community-dwelling older adults. It is a multidimensional instrument, simple and easy to administer. The current paper describes the procedure of translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the TFI in Italian language. The phases were the following: transla...

This study aims to assess the reliability, construct validity (convergent/divergent), and criterion validity of the Italian version of the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI). The TFI is a self-report questionnaire for screening frailty in older adults. Two hundred and sixty-seven community-dwelling older adults were involved. Psychometric properties w...

The aim of this study is to assess the direct and indirect effects of a Multicomponent Exercise (MCE) on mobility and balance in institutionalized older people. One hundred and twelve subjects (85 women), 83.0-year-olds on average (SD=7.5), were included in the study, and divided into a MCE-Group (MCE-G) and a Control Group (CG), according to match...

Un manuale teorico-pratico nato dall'esigenza di declinare i molteplici aspetti del mondo dell'anziano: dalle modificazioni generate dai processi di invecchiamento ai mutamenti che inevitabilmente si ripercuotono sulle abilità motorie e conseguentemente sull'autonomia nella gestione della vita quotidiana. Non solo strumento operativo, ma anche mome...

Ageing process involves the entire western world and in particular Europe. The analysis of demographic and health changes of the aged population is increasingly urgent in order to answer to the new individual and societal requests. An important concept in this regard is Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) during ageing, on which this paper will...

This study aims to investigate the effects of a physical exercise programme on psychological health status of subjects with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), analysing the direct effects of physical exercise on quality of life (QoL) and depression, and the moderating effects of the disability level in the relationship between physical training and psycholog...

Aim: in a growing old world, it is important to identify indicators of functional decline to better prevent negative health outcomes. In this view, the focus on trends of health indicators may be crucial (Idler & Benyamini, 1997). One of the main protective factor for chronic diseases is physical activity (Haskell, et al., 2007). Within this contex...

The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between individual characteristics and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL), and to identify which components of physical frailty measured according to Fried's criteria provided a better explanation of HRQOL. Two hundred and fifty-nine older adults (age 74 ± 6 years; 69% were women) livi...

Aims: The aim of the study is to understand the direct and indirect relations among handgrip strength, construct of frailty and physical functions in a sample of institutionalized elderly. Handgrip strength is an indicator commonly used to infer future disability in elderly (Rantanen, 1999) and it can be associated with loss of functionality (frail...

Aims: (1) to investigate gender differences in the index of physical frailty; (2) to determine the predictive validity of physical frailty for autonomy in daily activities (ADLs) in elderly population. Frailty is a concept always more invoked, defined as a loss of physiologic reserve, deriving from multiple and complex systems (Buchner et al., 1992...

Aims: The aims of the study are (i) to assess the effects of a Pilates-based training on mental health in subjects with Multiple Sclerosis (MS); (ii) to understand the role of socio-demographic variables in such a relationship. Scholars reported the efficacy of a Pilates protocol in terms of physical functions in persons with MS (Freeman et al., 20...

Introduction: the aged population is increasing, but the healthy life expectancy is reducing. Comorbidity and disability are the main causes of institutionalization and demographic data state that the number of institutionalized elderly is increasing. Currently, only few studies reported the effects of a physical training in institutionalized elder...

Abstract This research aims to investigate the direct and indirect effects of physical training on psychological health in a sample of individuals with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Thirty-five women affected by relapsing-remitting MS, with a mean age of (40 ± 5) years and an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score ranging between 0 and 3, partici...

Introduction: the elderly population and the life expectancy in the Western world are constantly increasing. This social change can be seen as a challenge to the identification of protective factors for maintaining as long as possible a good level of physical and psychological functioning in old citizens. Physical activity is one of the major prote...

Introduction: the step test is a useful and very common test to study physical functions/efficiency. Unfortunately the majority of test protocols reported in scientific literature were studied for the young – adult population, with the set of very high step and a imposed frequency of movement. Objective: to propose a new protocol of step test speci...

Fatigue is one of the major symptoms that affects negatively quality of life of patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), yet little is known about its pathophysiological etiologic mechanisms. This study investigated the changes in psychosocial and immunological functioning of fatigued persons with MS who were asked to participate in physical training...

The research aims to investigate the effects of a Shintaido practice in terms of physical and psychological functioning in a group of elderly. Forty seniors, of both gender, with a mean age of (69 ± 6) years, self-sufficient and without highly invalidating diseases participated in the study. The experimental group (EG) attended the Shintaido physic...