Jack Rejeski

Jack Rejeski
Wake Forest University | WFU · Department of Health and Exercise Science

About

314
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Publications

Publications (314)
Article
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Purpose The prevalence of sedentary lifestyles (SL), which includes both high volumes of extended sitting behavior and a low volume of steps accumulated across the day, among older adults continues to rise contributing to increases in associated comorbidities and the loss of independence. The social, personal, and economic burdens are enormous. In...
Article
Research can be inherently biased when results cannot be generalized across different subsets of a population that differ from those enrolled in the study. Thus, it is critical to recruit a diverse range of individuals who represent the entire population and who represent the disease or health condition being studied. The purpose of this study was...
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Declining physical function with aging is associated with structural and functional brain network organization. Gaining a greater understanding of network associations may be useful for targeting interventions that are designed to slow or prevent such decline. Our previous work demonstrated that the Short Physical Performance Battery (eSPPB) score...
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Regular exercise promotes whole-body health and prevents disease, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are incompletely understood 1–3 . Here, the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium ⁴ profiled the temporal transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, lipidome, phosphoproteome, acetylproteome, ubiquitylproteome, epigenome and immunome...
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Introduction Chronic pain is a prevalent issue among older adults in the United States that impairs quality of life. Physical activity has emerged as a cost-effective and non-pharmacological treatment for chronic pain, offering benefits such as improved physical functioning, weight loss, and enhanced mood. However, promoting physical activity in ol...
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Purpose One’s amount, intensity, and distribution of physical activity may have implications for whether it has positive or negative effects on pain and quality of life for older adults living with chronic pain. Thus, we investigated baseline patterns of stepping related to pain symptoms and health-related quality of life at baseline and over a 12-...
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Intentional weight loss (WL) in older adults is controversial as it may accelerate age-related muscle and bone loss, even if weight is regained. Current WL guidelines recommend physical activity (PA) for the maintenance of WL. However, whether participants who maintain WL have higher PA following randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of WL and PA is...
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Importance Few people with lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) participate in supervised treadmill exercise covered by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In people with PAD, the benefits of home-based walking exercise, relative to supervised exercise, remain unclear. Objective To study whether home-based walking exercise im...
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Background Overweight and obesity are associated with adverse functional outcomes in people with peripheral artery disease (PAD). The effects of weight loss in people with overweight/obesity and PAD are unknown. Methods The PROVE (Promote Weight Loss in Obese PAD Patients to Prevent Mobility Loss) Trial is a multicentered randomized clinical trial...
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Background: Clinical management of chronic pain often includes recommendations to engage in physical activity (PA), though there are little data on the interplay between pain symptoms and key aspects of PA participation (e.g., intensity and bout duration) among older adults. Herein we investigate the longitudinal relationships between changes in PA...
Article
Deficits in physical function that occur with aging contribute to declines in quality of life and increased mortality. There has been a growing interest in examining associations between physical function and neurobiology. Whereas high levels of white matter disease have been found in individuals with mobility impairments in structural brain studie...
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Background: Stress is a motivator to consume alcohol, a well-documented relapse risk, and is known to differentially affect biological and psychological processes as people age. Objectives: Because alcohol consumption is known to acutely decrease stress and increase affect, this study examined differences in ratings of stress and affect in middle-a...
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Background: Little is known about the effect of exercise modality during a dietary weight loss program on muscle size and quality, as measured by computed tomography (CT). Even less is known about how CT-derived changes in muscle track with changes in volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) and bone strength. Methods: Older adults (66 ± 5 years,...
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Background Mobility limitation in older age reduces quality of life, generates substantial health- and social-care costs, and increases mortality. Objective The REtirement in ACTion (REACT) trial aimed to establish whether or not a community-based active ageing intervention could prevent decline in physical functioning in older adults already at i...
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Objective: Adverse childhood experiences, ranging from childhood trauma to neglect or mistreatment, show associations with alcohol dependence in adulthood. Alcohol researchers have not yet clearly demonstrated the potential impact of childhood maltreatment on everyday drinking in alcohol consumers who do not have an alcohol use disorder (AUD). Thi...
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Introduction: An optimal exercise intervention for individuals with peripheral artery disease (PAD) should improve both objective measures of walking and patient reported outcomes (PROs). This study evaluated whether home-based walking exercise conducted at a pace that induced ischemic leg symptoms (high intensity) improved both treadmill walking d...
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Chronic pain is a debilitating condition that affects many older adults who often have limited access to non-pharmacological pain management strategies. One potentially effective and novel lifestyle medicine for chronic pain involves increasing physical activity through frequent movement across the day, thereby also decreasing the presence of exten...
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This report contrasts the impact of a dietary weight loss intervention (WL) paired with aerobic exercise (EX) and/or sitting less and moving throughout the day (SL) on self-efficacy for walking (hereafter walking self-efficacy) and satisfaction with physical functioning (hereafter satisfaction). Additional analyses examined dose-response associatio...
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Given the vulnerability of older adults to chronic disease and physical disability, coupled with the threat that obesity poses to healthy aging, there is an urgent need to understand the causes of positive energy balance and the struggle that many older adults face with intentional weight loss. This paper focuses on neural vulnerabilities related t...
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Background Fidelity assessment of behaviour change interventions is vital to understanding trial outcomes. This study assesses the delivery fidelity of behaviour change techniques used in the Retirement in ACTion (REACT) randomised controlled trial. REACT is a community-based physical activity (PA) and behaviour maintenance intervention to prevent...
Article
Background: Substantive previous work has shown that both gait speed and global cognition decline as people age. Rates of their decline, as opposed to cross-sectional measurements, could be more informative of future functional status and other clinical outcomes since they more accurately represent deteriorating systems. Additionally, understandin...
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Clinical trials conventionally test aggregate mean differences and assume homogeneous variances across treatment groups. However, significant response heterogeneity may exist. The purpose of this study was to model treatment response variability using gait speed change among older adults participating in caloric restriction (CR) trials. Eight rando...
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Importance: Observational evidence suggests that higher physical activity is associated with slower kidney function decline; however, to our knowledge, no large trial has evaluated whether activity and exercise can ameliorate kidney function decline in older adults. Objective: To evaluate whether a moderate-intensity exercise intervention can af...
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Objective: The goal of this study was to determine whether the degree of weight loss after 6 months of a behavior-based intervention is related to baseline connectivity within two functional networks (FNs) of interest, FN1 and FN2, in a group of older adults with obesity. Methods: Baseline functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collecte...
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Being overweight or obese is a primary modifiable risk factor that exacerbates disease progression and mobility disability in older knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Lifestyle interventions combining exercise with dietary weight loss (EX+DWL) yield meaningful improvements in mobility and weight loss that are superior to EX or DWL alone. Unfortunat...
Article
Background Mobility limitations in older populations have a substantial impact on health outcomes, quality of life, and social care costs. The Retirement in Action (REACT) randomised controlled trial assessed a 12-month community-based group physical activity and behaviour maintenance intervention to help prevent decline in physical functioning in...
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Background Mobility limitations in old age can greatly reduce quality of life, generate substantial health and social care costs, and increase mortality. Through the Retirement in Action (REACT) trial, we aimed to establish whether a community-based active ageing intervention could prevent decline in lower limb physical functioning in older adults...
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Background In people with peripheral artery disease, post hoc analyses of the LITE (Low Intensity Exercise Intervention in Peripheral Artery Disease) randomized trial were conducted to evaluate the effects of walking exercise at a pace inducing ischemic leg symptoms on walking velocity and the Short Physical Performance Battery, compared with walki...
Article
Objective: To conduct post hoc secondary analysis examining the association between change in physical activity. Measured with self-report and accelerometry, from baseline to 1 and 4 years and cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes in the Look AHEAD Trial. Research design and methods: Participants were adults with overweight/obesity and type 2 di...
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Objective This study aimed to determine the impact of dietary weight loss (WL) plus aerobic exercise (EX) and a “move more, more often” approach to activity promotion (SitLess; SL) on WL and maintenance. Methods Low-active older adults (age 65-86 years) with obesity were randomized to WL+EX, WL+SL, or WL+EX+SL. Participants received a social-cogni...
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Caloric restriction (CR) can exacerbate muscle and bone loss. We examined 18-month changes in computed tomography (CT)-derived trunk muscle, and volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) and finite element-estimated bone strength of the spine and hip in 55 older adults randomized to CR alone or CR plus aerobic (CR+AT) or resistance (CR+RT) training. T...
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Chronic pain in aging is a potent cause and consequence of obesity, inactivity, and prolonged sedentary behavior, making these especially important targets for behavioral intervention. This study aimed to refine a theory-based group-mediated diet and sedentary behavior intervention for older adults with chronic pain. Participants (N=28) attended 12...
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Objective: In a randomized clinical trial of people with lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD), to test whether walking exercise conducted at a pace without ischemic leg symptoms improved physical activity more than walking exercise conducted at a pace that induced ischemic leg symptoms and more than an attention control group. Methods &...
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Introduction: Recent evidence showed that among people with peripheral artery disease (PAD), walking exercise conducted at a pace inducing ischemic leg symptoms improved six-minute walk distance (6MW), while walking exercise conducted at a pace without ischemic leg symptoms had no effect on 6MW. This report describes associations of walking exercis...
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Background Hip- and wrist-worn ActiGraph accelerometers are widely used in research on physical activity as they offer an objective assessment of movement intensity across the day. Herein we characterize and contrast key structured physical activities and common activities of daily living via accelerometry data collected at the hip and wrist from a...
Article
Participating in sufficient levels of physical activity is important for sustaining health and quality of life across the age span. The United States Physical Activity Guidelines recommend individuals of all ages “move more, more often” by frequently engaging in aerobic activity while avoiding prolonged bouts of sitting. This is indicative of a slo...
Preprint
Full-text available
Objective Stress is a motivator to consume alcohol, a well-documented relapse risk, and is known to differentially affect biological and psychological processes as people age. Because alcohol consumption is known to decrease stress and increase affect, this study examined differences in ratings of stress and affect across the day in middle-aged ver...
Article
Background The purpose of this study was to examine whether select baseline characteristics influenced the likelihood of an overweight/obese, older adult experiencing a clinically meaningful gait speed response (±0.05 m/s) to caloric restriction (CR). Methods Individual level data from 1188 older adults participating in eight, five/six-month, weig...
Preprint
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Alcohol consumption is now common practice worldwide, and functional brain networks are beginning to reveal the complex interactions observed with alcohol consumption and abstinence. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) has a well-documented relationship with alcohol use, and a growing body of research is finding links between the ANS and functional...
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12009 Background: Older adults are at risk for physical function decline during therapy for AML. Impaired physical function after induction therapy is associated with shorter survival Interventions designed to maintain function may improve treatment outcomes. We piloted a physical activity (PA) intervention among older adults receiving intensive ch...
Article
This study investigated cross-sectional associations of peripheral artery disease (PAD) severity (defined by the ankle–brachial index (ABI)) and amounts of daily sustained physical activity (PA) (defined as > 100 activity counts per minute lasting 5 consecutive minutes or more). This study also investigated associations of amounts of daily sustaine...
Article
Importance Supervised high-intensity walking exercise that induces ischemic leg symptoms is the first-line therapy for people with lower-extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD), but adherence is poor. Objective To determine whether low-intensity home-based walking exercise at a comfortable pace significantly improves walking ability in people wi...
Article
Background Elevated Interleukine-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) are associated with aging-related reductions in physical function, but little is known about their independent and combined relationships with major mobility disability (MMD), defined as the self-reported inability to walk a quarter-mile. Methods We estimated the absolute and r...
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Background and objective Weight loss (WL) and subsequent regain are complex physiologic processes, and our understanding of the hormonal changes associated with these processes continues to evolve. We aimed to examine the effects of behavioral WL on 6-month changes in ghrelin and GLP-1 and evaluate the effects of these changes in gut hormones on we...
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Background: Engaging in sufficient levels of physical activity, guarding against sustained sitting, and maintaining a healthy body weight represent important lifestyle strategies for managing older adults' chronic pain. Our first Mobile Health Intervention to Reduce Pain and Improve Health (MORPH) randomized pilot study demonstrated that a partial...
Preprint
BACKGROUND Engaging in sufficient levels of physical activity, guarding against sustained sitting, and maintaining a healthy body weight represent important lifestyle strategies for managing older adults’ chronic pain. Our first Mobile Health Intervention to Reduce Pain and Improve Health (MORPH) randomized pilot study demonstrated that a partially...
Article
Full-text available
Elucidating the neural correlates of mobility is critical given the increasing population of older adults and age-associated mobility disability. In the current study, we applied graph theory to cross-sectional data to characterize functional brain networks generated from functional magnetic resonance imaging data both at rest and during a motor im...
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Objective The purpose of this study was to determine whether baseline measures of hedonic hunger—the Power of Food Scale—and self‐control for food consumption—the Weight Efficacy Lifestyle Questionnaire—were associated with network topology within two sets of brain regions (regions of interest [ROIs] 1 and 2) in a group of older adults with obesity...
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Chronic, multisite pain is a common phenomenon in aging and is associated with a host of negative health outcomes. It is a complex and multifaceted condition that may be exacerbated by weight gain and long periods of inactivity. Unfortunately, older adults suffering from chronic pain have unique barriers limiting access to center-based behavior cha...
Article
BACKGROUND Physical activity (PA) preserves mobility, but few practices screen older adults for mobility impairment or counsel on PA. DESIGN “Promoting Active Aging” (PAA) was a mixed‐methods randomized‐controlled pilot, to test the feasibility and acceptability of a video‐based PA counseling tool and implementation into practice of two mobility a...
Article
Background Increasing evidence shows that cognition and gait speed are associated and are important measures of health among older adults. However, previous studies have used different methods to assess these two outcomes and lack sufficient sample size to examine heterogeneity among subgroups. This study examined how the relationship between globa...
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Importance Consideration of differential treatment effects among subgroups in clinical trial research is a topic of increasing interest. This is an especially salient issue for weight loss trials. Objective To determine whether stratification by sex and race is associated with meaningful differences in physical function response to weight loss amo...
Article
Purpose: Although exercise training (ET) has been shown to improve both physical function and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in older patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), the relationship between changes in these important patient-centered outcome measures has not been adequately investigated. Methods: Pat...
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Background Advances in computational algorithms and the availability of large datasets with clinically relevant characteristics provide an opportunity to develop machine learning prediction models to aid in diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of older adults. Some studies have employed machine learning methods for prediction modeling, but skepticis...
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Exercise provides a robust physiological stimulus that evokes cross-talk among multiple tissues that when repeated regularly (i.e., training) improves physiological capacity, benefits numerous organ systems, and decreases the risk for premature mortality. However, a gap remains in identifying the detailed molecular signals induced by exercise that...
Article
Objective This study evaluated weight changes after cessation of the 10‐year intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) in the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) study. It was hypothesized that ILI participants would be more likely to gain weight during the 2‐year observational period following termination of weight‐loss–maintenance counseling...
Article
Objectives: To examine the relationship between time spent in light physical activity (LPA) and in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and the pattern of accumulation on the risk for major mobility disability (MMD) in a large multicenter study of physical activity (PA) and aging, the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders (L...
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Background Challenges of recruitment to randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and successful strategies to overcome them should be clearly reported to improve recruitment into future trials. REtirement in ACTion (REACT) is a UK-based multi-centre RCT recruiting older adults at high risk of mobility disability to a 12-month group-based exercise and be...
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Objectives To examine and compare changes in strength and physical function from pre- to post-diagnosis among men with prostate cancer (PC, [cases]) and matched non-cancer controls identified from the Health, Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) study. Materials and methods We conducted a longitudinal analysis of 2 strength and 3 physical funct...
Preprint
BACKGROUND Participating in physical activity and minimizing time spent sitting is an effective strategy for managing pain in older adults. Theory-based mHealth tools are integral to effective day-long physical activity interventions, but it is vital that mHealth tools undergo an iterative development process alongside members of the target populat...
Article
Objectives: Our aim was to examine the impacts of baseline fatigue on the effectiveness of a physical activity (PA) intervention to prevent major mobility disability (MMD) and persistent major mobility disability (PMMD) in participants from the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders (LIFE) study. Design: Prospective cohort of indivi...
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The purpose of this study is to explore whether the effect of weight loss on physical function in older adults varies by race/ethnicity. Individual level data from 1369 older, (67.7±5.4 years), obese (BMI: 33.9±4.4 kg/m2), adults (30% male, 21% African American) who participated in eight randomized controlled trials of weight loss were pooled. Stud...
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The purpose of this study is to explore whether the effect of intentional weight loss on physical function in older adults varies by sex/gender. Individual level data from 1369 older, (67.7±5.4 years), obese (BMI: 33.9±4.4 kg/m2), adults (30% male, 21% African American) who participated in eight randomized controlled trials of weight loss were pool...
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Objective: This study aimed to examine exercise modality during weight loss on change in inflammation among older adults with overweight or obesity and cardiometabolic disease. Methods: A total of 222 older adults with a mean (SD) age of 66.9 (4.7) years and a mean (SD) BMI of 33.5 (3.5) kg/m2 were randomized to weight loss (WL; n = 68), WL plus...
Article
Intestinal barrier dysfunction is hypothesized to be a contributing determinant of two prominent characteristics of aging: inflammation and decline in physical function. A relationship between microbial translocation (MT), or their biomarkers (lipopolysaccharide binding protein-1 [LBP-1], soluble cluster of differentiation [sCD]-14), and physical f...
Article
Objective: This study aimed to examine change in bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone score among older adult weight regainers (WR) and weight maintainers (WM). Methods: Observational data come from 77 older adults (mean age: 67 [SD 5] years; 69% women; 70% white) with obesity (mean BMI: 33.6 [SD 3.7] kg/m2 ) who lost weight during an...
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Background: Historically, influential models and theories of health behavior employed in aging research view human behavior as determined by conscious processes that involve intentional motives and beliefs. We examine the evolution, strengths, and weaknesses of this approach; then offer a contemporary definition of the mind, provide support for it,...
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Background and Objectives Many cross-sectional studies have confirmed a link between gait speed and cognitive function. However, it is unknown whether cognitive function plays a role in the onset of major mobility disability (MMD) and if the effects are independent of physical function. This study examined cognitive and physical function as predict...
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Background Diet and exercise can promote weight loss in older adults; however, there is potential to increase fracture risk due to loss of bone mineral density (BMD) known to accompany weight loss. Weight loss effects on measures of bone quality and strength are currently unknown. AimsThe purpose of this study is to develop subject-specific finite-...
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Randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) show intentional weight loss improves body composition and physical function in older adults; however, the long-term benefits (and risks) are unknown. We conducted a pilot study to assess the feasibility of recalling prior RCT participants to examine the long-term effects of intentional weight loss on body compo...