Page - 31 - in options, Volume summer 2016

interview www.iiasa.ac.at people at iiasa Best foot forward Q & A with IIASA Research Scholar Daniela Weber QQ Your research looks into walking speed, and how that relates to aging. But if you are interested in aging why not just ask people how old they are? QA If you ask someone how old they are you just get a number, which omits a lot  of important information. Asking someone how old they feel might get a little closer to what we want to find out, but then again that is very subjective—it  might depend on their mood that day, for instance. Walking speed is a relatively objective measure that can give us extra information above and beyond the simple number of years lived. We  see, for example, that in a group of people of exactly the same chronological age some will be “older” in  terms of their walking  speeds. QQ You found that certain lifestyle factors influenced walking speeds. What were they? QA My recent paper looked at older adults, aged 60 and over, and we found that socioeconomic status was a key influence. Manual laborers tended to have slower walking speeds than non‑manual workers, even if they were the same chronological age. There was also a strong effect of education. Those who were more highly educated—even if their education was a long time ago—tended to walk faster than people with less education. QQ Do you know why level of education would be related to walking speed? QA I think it is likely to be because more educated people tend to be more aware of their health. As a result they might take up a sport or do some kind  of training during their leisure time. They might also go to the doctor for more regular check‑ups. All this leads to a person who is healthier in old  age, and  therefore has a faster walk. QQ It seems odd that non‑manual workers walk faster. Doesn’t the active nature  of a manual job improve walking speed? QA I think that it might be the result of overdoing strenuous physical work. In  the prime of their lives a manual laborer might be stronger than  a non‑manual worker, but it takes its toll in later life. Another possible explanation is that the environment you work in as a manual worker harms  your health more. Think of the paint fumes that a decorator  might be exposed to, for instance. Occupation is also closely  related to  education and so that might have effects here too. QQ How did you become interested in this field? QA Aging has always fascinated me. Even within Europe, for example, there  are countries that appear very economically or socially similar and  then  we look at how they age and we see big differences. Why is that? I  also like the fact that I work at the border of different  disciplines: aging  research has aspects that are medical,  demographic, and socioeconomic. That is also what’s great about working at IIASA, there are so many different topics being studied, and it’s interesting to  investigate the overlaps between fields. DB Daniela Weber is a research scholar in the  IIASA World Population Program. She  works with the Reassessing  Aging from a Population Perspective project on developing new measures of  aging as alternatives to  chronological age. Further info Read more about Weber’s research at  blog.iiasa.ac.at/weber-16 Daniela Weber weberd@iiasa.ac.at 31summer 2016 + options