Senior Athletes: A Successful Aging Model in Pain Inhibitory Control? A Cross-Sectional Study.

• Grant number: 24/16372-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Stela Márcia Mattiello
• Grantee: Julia Tonon Machado
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated an increase in the population's life expectancy. Although there seems to be arelationship between longevity and better quality of life, these factors are not associated. Subjects in their lateryears show susceptibility to numerous comorbidities. It is expected that 38-60% of adults over 65 years old willbe affected by some aspect of chronic pain related to aging. Due to the association between the progression ofaging and the chronic onset of pain, elderly individuals have significant alterations in their inhibitory painprocessing, resulting in a worse quality of life during their later years. On the other hand, a model of successfulaging has been proposed through the regular practice of physical exercise throughout life, a characteristic that canbe observed in senior athletes. Studies frequently demonstrate the potential of such a group of remaining athletesto counteract the progress of aging. However, there is no clear evidence of better inhibitory pain control in thispopulation profile, exposed as a model of successful aging. Objective: Our study aims to investigate and comparethe findings of conditioned pain modulation (CPM) between senior athletes and young healthy university athletes.Methods: The present study was designed in an observational model with cross-sectional data analysis. The studywill follow the recommendations of the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology(STROBE). All participants must complete and sign the informed consent form before their voluntaryparticipation. Participants will be divided into two groups: G1: Senior athletes and G2: University athletes. Twovisits will be necessary for this project with each volunteer. The first visit will be for physical assessment,questionnaire administration, and body composition evaluation. The second visit will be used to assessendogenous pain inhibition through the CPM test. For statistical analysis, an independent samples t-test will beused to compare the CPM findings between the two groups. A significance level of p<0.05 will be adopted. Anew independent samples t-test will be used to compare body composition results between the groups, including:(1) Bone mineral density; (2) lean mass index/H²; (3) adiposity index/H².