Physical exercise and functional fitness in independently living vs institutionalized elderly women: a comparison of 60- to 79-year-old city dwellers.

Purpose: To compare functional fitness (FF) levels among independent-living (IL) and day care (DC) elderly women of different age groups and to analyze changes in FF after 8 months of participation in an exercise program intervention for the IL elderly women.

Materials And Methods: A total of 674 elderly women were divided into four IL groups with age in the range of 60-64 years (IL60-64, n=149), 65-69 years (IL65-69, n=138), 70-74 years (IL70-74, n=135), and 75-79 years (IL75-79, n=83), and four DC groups with age in the range of 60-64 years (DC60-64, n=35), 65-69 years (DC65-69, n=34), 70-74 years (DC70-74, n=47), and 75-79 years (DC75-79, n=53). The intervention consisted of a multimodal exercise training, 3 days per week for 8 months.

Influence of the length of institutionalization on older adults' postural balance and risk of falls: a transversal study.

Objective: to ascertain the influence of the length of institutionalization on older adults' balance and risk of falls.

Method: to evaluate the risk of falls, the Berg Balance Scale and the Timed Get Up and Go test were used; and for measuring postural balance, static stabilometry was used, with acquisition of the elliptical area of 95% and mean velocities on the x and y axes of center of pressure displacement. Parametric and nonparametric measures of association and comparison (α<0.