AssociaÃÃo entre postura corporal e fragilidade em idosos residentes em Ãrea urbana / Association between body posture and frailty in elderly people living in urban area

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

09/07/2012

RESUMO

RATIONALE. The term frailty is applied to aged individuals with high risk for falls, hospitalization, institutionalization and death. Frailty is associated with falls, but this association has not yet been sufficiently established, which may limit the intervention in this area. We hypothesized that posture would be a factor that would be associated with the elderly fragile taking it to a higher occurrence of falls in frailty. Approaches focused on improving posture could be important for the reduction of falls in elderly people. Investigations on the occurrence of postural alterations in elderly patients with frailty are not available. OBJECTIVE. This study aimed estimate the postural angular measures among frail, pre-fragile and non-fragile older adults (60 years or more) living in the urban area of Fortaleza, CearÃ. METHODS. Angular postural measures wich alterations are associated with impaired body dynamics and high risk of falls were evaluated. The postural analysis was interpreted by the software of postural evaluation â (software of postural evaluation â SAPO). 158 elderly aging from 62 to 90 years old were evaluated from March 2009 to October 2010 and distributed in three categories: non fragile, pre-fragile, and frail accordingly to classification criteria proposed by Fried et al., 2001. The adjustment for potential confounders relationship between postural measures and presence of frailty was estimated through a multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS. Position of the head protruded (<36 degrees), knee flexed (<172 degrees), ankle dorsiflexion (<77 degrees), legs pies (≥185 degrees) were significantly associated with frailty after being adjusted for gender, age and BMI. CONCLUSION. Posture changes are associated with frailty and the identification of indicators associated with postural fragility can lead to interventions that minimize the undesirable outcomes such as falls and reduction of physical activities and operationalize valuable strategies towards preventive clinical practice.

ASSUNTO(S)

saude coletiva fragilidade idoso postura frailty elderly posture

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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