Functional disability: health conditions and physical activity practice in older adults - Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem

Functional disability: health conditions and physical activity practice in older adults |

ABSTRACT

Objective:

to verify the prevalence of functional disability among older adults and how it can affect their health conditions and the regular practice of physical activities.

Method:

this is a household and cross-sectional study conducted with older adults of both sexes. We verified the variables associated with functional disability by Poisson's regression.

Results:

around 420 older adults participated in this study (68.1% of them being women). We observed a statistically significant association between functional disability, the number of chronic diseases, self-assessed health conditions, and the practice of physical activities; the latter only being found among men. Older adults who reported presenting four or more chronic diseases, self-assessed their health conditions as poor, and were not used to practice physical activities, showing high prevalence of functional disability.

Conclusion:

considering the changeable character of these variables, we recommend that prevention actions be taken, mainly at primary level, to delay the emergence of disability.