Influence of institutionalization and practice of physical activity on balance and functional mobility in elderly

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the influence of institutionalization and physical activity in balance and functional mobility in elderly subjects. Methods: Sixty-one elderly were divided into three groups: 21 institutionalized (GIN), 20 non-institutionalized active (GAT) and 20 non-institutionalized not active (GNAT). Balance and functional mobility were evaluated by the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and Timed Up and Go test (TUG), respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (One Way Anova, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U-test) with a significance level of p≤0.05. Results: We observed differences between groups in BBS (p=0.001) and TUG (p=0.001), with GAT showing better balance (55±1.4 points) and functional mobility (8.4 ± 2.03 seconds) in relation to GNAT (48.6±8.8 points; 16.1±12.9 seconds) and GIN (34.3±15.1 points; 29.6±18.6 seconds). Conclusions: Active elderly had better balance, functional mobility and lower risk for falls. Conversely, institutionalized elderly had a lower balance, functional mobility reduced and consequently high risk for falls.