Leisure-time physical activity as a protective factor for functional capacity loss in community dwelling elders

Abstract

Populational aging led to the emergence of chronic diseases, all potentially incapacitating, thus affecting functional capacity (FC) of elders. Despite health evidences in favour of having regularphysical activity, the majority of elders are not sufficiently active. Baseline data of an urban eldercohort in Brazil showed that only 28% were active and 68% had some functional loss, a figure thatwent up to 73% among the inactives. FC was associated with a network of sociodemographic, healthand behavioral factors. In a multivariate analysis, the inactives showed twice the odds of beingseverely dependent when compared to the actives. Noteworthy that inactivity is as a modifiablefactor that might prevent FC loss. Longitudinal studies are needed to verify