Motor performance of elderly in a community in southern Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this study was to present reference values and assess the motor performance of the elderly in a community in the south of Brazil, according to sex and age group. Population-based household study, conducted with 477 elderly (?60 years) from the municipality of Antonio Carlos, Santa Catarina state. Motor performance was verified by four tests: handgrip strength (KG), balance (four tasks), ‘chair stand’ and ‘pickup a pen’ (seconds). We use a score varying from 0 (unable) to 3 (good) in all the tests. We assessed 270 women with a mean age of 73.2 ±8.82 years, and 207 men (73.3 ± 8.96 years). The results showed that the values (means, standard deviations and percentiles) were higher in men than those of the women in handgrip strength test and lower in the tests evaluated by time. The chi-square test showed that men had the highest prevalenceof ‘good’ performance in the ‘chair stand’, balance and handgrip strength tests, when compared to the women (p?0.01). With the advance of age there is a reduction in the prevalence (p?0.01) of men and women with good performance and an increase in the prevalence of incapacity or poor performance in all the tests. The best motor performanceis specific to the test, sex and age group.