Functional force differences in elderly people

Abstract

Objective: This aim of this study was to determine whether there were functional force differences in elderly male and female participants.

Materials and Methods: In the scope of community service practices lesson, 14 females with an average age of 74.2 ± 6.3 years and 17 males with an average age of 72.1 ± 4.3, in Istanbul Pendik Samanyolu Nursing Home Elderly Care Center, participated in this study. Volunteers who were evaluated by the specialist physician of the institution and had enough points in the mini mental state test, and were not dependent on daily life activities were included in the study. Body composition measures, sitting-rising test, mini mental state test and physical function scale were applied to the elderly participants. SPSS v 20 statistical package program was used for statistical evaluations. Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney U tests were used for comparison within groups. The significance value was accepted as 0.05.

Results: At the end of the evaluation, there was no difference found between males and females in terms of body weight, sitting-rising and cognitive function. In males, total muscle mass, total body water, physical function and daily life activities were significantly higher compared to females (p<0.05), but the BMI and % fat values were significantly lower (p<0.05). In contrast, females were found to be closer to the limit of obesity. In daily life activities, it was found that females had higher BMI and % fat value, lower total muscle mass, total body water and physical function scores than males(p<0.05).

Conclusion: As a result, body composition differences such as total muscle mass, total body water, % fat value in both males and females were found to decrease with decreasing dependence on physical function and daily life activities.

Cite this article as: Nalbant O. Functional force differences in elderly people. Turk J Sports Med. 2019; 54(Suppl): 40-46.