Estado nutricional, funcional e qualidade de vida de idosos acompanhados em grupos de convivência na cidade de Pelotas , RS Brasil

Abstract

Introduction: With the increasing of the elderly population worldwide, the concern about their nutritional status, functional capacity and quality of life comes as highlight to the health estimative of this age group. Aims: To evaluate nutritional and functional status, and the quality of life of elderly accompanied in groups of conviviality, according to it’s kind of activity (physical or recreative) in the city of Pelotas, RS, Brazil. Methods: Cross-sectional study with a convenience sample composed by 210 elderly (60 years or older) bound to conviviality groups for physical activity (PAG) or recreative activities (RG). To asses nutritional status it was used the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and the Body Mass Index (BMI). To evaluate muscle function of the opponent’s finger was used the dynamometer PiNCHY Gauge® and to estimate the muscle reservation was used the calf circumference. To measure the quality of life was used two instruments developed by the World Health Organization, the WHOQOL-Old and the WHOQOL-Bref. Results: Most of the elderly were female (86.7%) and the sample’s mean age was 69.3 ±5.9 years old, having the RG significantly higher age than PAG. About the nutritional status evaluated by BMI, 82.9% of the elderly had excessive weight, with higher prevalence in RG. According to the MNA, 22.9% of the sample were in nutritional risk or malnutrition. The mean calf circumference was 37.3 ±4.1cm, being larger in PAG than in GR (p=0.002). The median muscle strength was 6.77kg, with significantly higher values for men; among these, those who frequented the PAG showed median muscle strength higher than those of the RG group (p=0.04). Quality of life presented higher scores in the domains of Sensitive, Social and Environment and in total score of the WHOQOL-Bref, all in favor of PAG. Conclusion: There was high prevalence of excessive weight in this elderly sample, especially in RG. The practice of physical activity was associated to larger calf circumference in both genders and to higher functionality of the opponent finger muscle in men. The PAG had superior quality of life in several domains.