Physical health, anthropometrical indicators, physical activities and subjective well-being of elderly attended at the geriatric ambulatory of HC/UNICAMP / Saude fisica, indicadores antropometricos, desempenho fisico e bem-estar subjetivo em idosos atendidos no ambulatorio de geriatria do HC/UNICAMP

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

The literature reports that the ageing process shows changes in the anthropometric, neuromuscular, cardiovascular, pulmonary levels, besides de loss in agility, coordination, balance, flexibility, articular mobility and an increase in the cartilage, tendons and connective tissue stiffness. These changes, associated to the low level in physical activity of elderly lead to a diminishing of functional capacity and physical autonomy, reflecting negatively in their quality of life. Our research aimed to analyze the socio-demographic variables, physical health, anthropometrics, physical activities of the lower members and the subjective well-being of elderly attended at the Geriatric Ambulatory of HC/UNICAMP, identifying, characterizing and comparing the physically active and inactive people. Hundred and twenty elderly of both sexes have participated, being 47 men and 73 women, with an average age of 77.13±7.6. It has been a transversal study integrating a thematic project named ?Quality of life of elderly: fragility and subjective well-being indicators?. The protocol applied to this research includes some issues of the sections: I. Personal Identification; II. Socio-demographical data; III. Physical Health?diseases, medications and all the issues of the sections: IV. Anthropometric; V. Evaluation of the physical activities of the lower and upper members; VII. Physical Activity and XIV. Subjective Well-Being. The results show that the sample socio-demographic data were: 46.72% of the elderly were widows; 66.39%, literate, 90.16%, retired. As for the physical health characteristic, the number of diseases varies from 1 to 12 and an average of 5.70±2.43. The number of medications being used varied from 1 to 14 and an average of 5.38±2.28. From the total sample, 26.45% were physically active, and among those, 53.13% practiced more than 4 weekly sessions of exercises; 67.74% practiced under medical indication; 46.88% reported as ?good? the perception between the quality of life and the practice of physical activity. Higher values with statistically significant differences were also found among the elderly practicing physical activities regularly, for the following variable categories: well-being and capacity to solve problems (more satisfied among the active ones); well-being and capacity to work (more satisfied among the active ones). Differences with statistic significance were found in the variables: march, strength of lower members and SPPB total, where the highest scores were among the active ones. Therefore, we concluded that the regular physical activity can slow down the declining speed of the physical activity related to mobility, independently of the chronological age. The maintenance of a functional level of independence can enhance the health and the quality of life in ageing

ASSUNTO(S)

ageing physical activity qualidade de vida envelhecimento atividade fisica quality of life idosos elderly

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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