Comparative Analyses of Functional Reaches of Older Mexican American Adults

Abstract

Older Mexican American adults have greater difficulty in performing activities of daily living (ADL) compared to other older adult groups. Differences in functional upper extremity anthropometry measures may help explain higher incidences of ADL difficulties among older Mexican American adults. Hence, as a first step, the objectives of this study were to compare baseline limiting outer fingertip and grip reaches of older Mexican Americans with published and available functional anthropometry data from other older adult groups. Older Mexican American females and males, aged 60–85+, recruited from Senior Centers in the City of El Paso, participated in the study. Stature, vertical fingertip and grip reaches, and horizontal fingertip and grip reaches, among other dimensions, were measured. Summary statistics, percentiles, and correlations between dimensions were generated for elderly Mexican American females and males. For overall comparison of Mexican American older adult anthropometry with other older adult groups, data available from several other studies in the Older Adult Data compendium was used. Overall comparisons of weighted means of available reach dimensions between older Mexican Americans and other older adult groups showed significant differences in most functional reach dimensions. Older Mexican American adults were found to have significantly different functional anthropometry than other groups.