Aptidão física, nível de atividade física e comportamento sedentário de mulheres idosas

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: Unsuccessful aging has been associated with a decrease in physical activity and increased exposure to sedentary behavior. These factors can negatively influence the physical fitness and health of the elderly. Objective: To evaluate and associate the level of physical activity (PA) with the sedentary behavior (SB) and physical fitness of the elderly. Methods: 42 older women with a mean age of 68.2 years old participated in this study. In order to evaluate the characteristics of the participants, the level of physical activity, sedentary behavior and physical fitness, we used anamnesis questionnaire, International Questionnaire of Physical Activity (IPAQ) adapted for the elderly, Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam - Sedentary Behavior Questionnaire (LASA-SBQ) and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) motor test sequence. The Spearman correlation coefficient was applied for statistical analysis and a significance level of p≤0.05 was adopted. Results: Most of the volunteers were classified as irregularly active in transportation (85.7%) and leisure time (71.4%), but were active in domestic activities (59.5%). The time spent in SB was more than three hours per day in 92.9% of the participants, and the average time per day was 6 hours (± 2.2 hours / day). Regarding physical fitness, most of volunteers (59.5%) had a good General Fitness Index. We found an association between PA in leisure time and screen-based SB (p = 0.007, r = 0.411), PA in leisure time and agility (p = 0.000, r = -0.643), PA in leisure time and aerobic capacity (p = 0.009, r = -0.417), PA in leisure time and upper limb strength (p = 0.002, r = 0.458), PA in transport time and SB (p = 0.019, r = -0.360), time spent in domestic PA and aerobic capacity (r = 0.005, r = -0.447), and between screen-based SB time and agility (p = 0.002, r = 470). Conclusion: The most active elderly women in leisure presented the best results in physical fitness tests. The participants studied exhibited a high sedentary behavior time per day, but there was no association of this variable with the level of physical activity in leisure time and physical fitness. Keywords: elderly, physical activity, sedentary behavior, physical fitness.