Abstract
The objective of this research was to determine the differences in autonomy in both basic activities of daily life in instrumental activities of daily life, as well as functional capacity, fragility and risk of falls between an active group and a sedentary group. The individual associations of functional capacity, fragility and risk of falls were also analyzed, with autonomy in basic activities of daily living and in instrumental activities of daily living in the active group. In this cross-sectional investigation, 139 people from Huelva between 65 and 87 years of age were evaluated (Mean (M) = 73.1; standard deviation (SD) = 5.86); 100 were women and 39 men. The active and sedentary group were composed of 69 and 70 elderly people, respectively. The active group carried out a physical activity program. Among the results, a significant effect was seen in the multivariate contrast of the study variables, V = 0.24, F (5, 137) = 8.58, and p < 0.001; while in the linear regressions in the active group, the Vivifrail with the Barthel Index (Δ Adj. R2 = 0.15) and with the Lawton and Brody Scale (Δ Adj. R2 = 0.22) were used. In conclusion, the active group presented better values in all the variables evaluated in comparison to the sedentary group, establishing statistically significant differences. In addition, in the active group, it has been found that functional capacity is a significant predictive variable of autonomy in instrumental activities of daily living (22%), while fragility and the risk of falls are significant predictors of autonomy in activities of basic daily life (15%).
Highlights
The ageing demographic plays a large role in developed societies [1] and are becoming a highly relevant social and political challenge [2]
When comparing the two intervention groups, statistically significant differences were found: older people in the active group have better values for all the variables evaluated compared to those in the sedentary group. This may be because physical activity produces an improvement in physical condition and functional capacity, as well as a lower risk of suffering from health problems and multiple diseases due to a sedentary lifestyle [7]. Another relevant finding is that, in the active group, it was found that functional capacity is a significant predictive variable of autonomy in the IADL by 22%, while frailty and the risk of falls are significant predictors of autonomy in the ADL by 15%
We find other studies, such as that carried out in [40], which show that the experimental group had an improvement in functional autonomy in the post-test compared to the pre-test values for the same group, and compared to the values for the control group, highlighting that strength training improves the functional autonomy of older people by encouraging the performance of everyday life activities
Summary
The ageing demographic plays a large role in developed societies [1] and are becoming a highly relevant social and political challenge [2]. This demographic change has occurred due to a decrease in birth rate and in mortality and in morbidity, and an increase in life expectancy [3]. According to the National Statistical Institute mortality tables, the life expectancy at birth of Spanish women is 87.7 years, and that of men is 80.4 years (the highest in Europe) [3,4]
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