Factors associated with body balance of long living elders

Abstract

Introduction: It is estimated that the elderly life is related to disturbances of balance, freedom in activities and social isolation. Objective: Measures to balance the body in the long-lived elderly. Method: An analytical cross-sectional study was performed on patients aged 80 and over, male and female. Patients underwent clinical assessment and physical-medical tests: Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Dynamic Gait Index (DGI), Timed Up and Go (TUG) test and sit to stand test. Descriptive analyses singles with the testing of Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis, consecutively by the Dunn test and Spearman’s alpha coefficient < 0.05. Results: There was a significant association between BBS and the following variables: fear of falling (p = 0.029), use of walking aid (p = 0.001), physical activity (p < 0.001), stroke episode (p = 0.007), musculoskeletal diseases (p = 0.027) and pain (p = 0.045). Significant correlations are variables between the BBS scores and the quantitative variables such as age (ρ = -0.316, p < 0.001), number of diseases (ρ = -0.26663, p = 0.0062), number of falls (ρ = -0,214, p = 0,0279), DGI (ρ = 0,713, p < 0,0001), sit to stand test (ρ = -0.418, p < 0.001), and TUG (ρ = -0.658, p < 0.05). The results were statistically significant (p < 0.01) 0.001). Conclusion: Body balance in the elderly gets more compromised with age, higher number of diseases, more falls, worse gait performance, decreased strength in the lower limb and mobility, stroke and musculoskeletal disorders, presence of complaints, use of marching support, fear of falling and not doing physical activity.