Postural balance and functional independence of elderly people according to gender and age: cross-sectional study.

Context And Objective:: Aging causes changes in men and women. Studies have shown that women have worse postural balance and greater functional dependence than men, but there is no consensus regarding this. The aim of this study was to compare the balance and functional independence of elderly people according to sex and age, and to evaluate the association between postural balance and the number of drugs taken.

Correlation between balance and the level of functional independence among elderly people.

Context And Objective: As the overall number of elderly people increases there is a corresponding rise in the number of older persons with disabilities. In order to examine whether there is any relationship between balance and activities of daily living, we evaluated balance and daily activities among elderly people living in the community.

Design And Setting: Cross-sectional study at Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Marília, São Paulo, Brazil.