Avaliação da aptidão física de idosos do centro de convivência da melhor idade do município de Monte Alto

Abstract

Due to the evident increase in the elderly population worldwide, it became a concern of the various areas of knowledge, to identify the conditions that allow aging with quality. One of the elements that determine the active or healthy life expectancy is independence to carry out your basic daily activities. Some research data show that 25% of the world's elderly population is dependent on others to perform their daily tasks and that the vast majority, despite being independent, have some type of difficulty in carrying out these activities. The aim of this study is to quantitatively analyze the performance of the elderly in an assessment of physical fitness. Forty elderly people participated in the research, 22 of whom were female and 18 were male, aged 60 years or older, members of a regular physical activity program at the Best Age Living Center in the municipality of Monte Alto, in the state of Sao Paulo. To comply with the research objective, the elderly were followed for a period of 12 months, during which six assessments were made regarding: body mass index (BMI), waist / hip ratio, upper limb strength, limb strength lower, balance, metabolic variables. It was concluded that a regular physical activity program over a period of 12 months is capable of providing the elderly with a performance considered by several authors as satisfactory in assessing physical fitness.