Comparative analysis of old people practicing physical exercises and sedentary ones regarding the risk of falling

Abstract

Postural instability with occurrence of falls is a characteristic of aging, representing a reason of worry for old people, becauseit can cause physical incapacity and loss of independence. The objective of this study was to evaluate the risk of falls of old womenpracticing physical exercises and sedentary ones. Women more than 60 years old, both active and sedentary were tested regarding therisk of falling using Timed Up and Go, Berg Scale and Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment. The following results were obtained:the group of active women had better performances in tests Timed Up And Go (p = 0.001), Scale of Berg (p = 0.002)) and PerformanceOriented Mobility Assessment (p = 0.002) than women of the sedentary group. The story of pain in the feet and fear of falling was greaterin the group of sedentary women. One thus concluded that sedentary women presented less functional mobility and more balancedeficits, as well as alterations in marching when compared to those which practiced physical exercise regularly. We conclude that thepractice of physical exercises contributed to reducing the risk of falls in the studied group.