Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Feb 5;17(3):1006.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17031006.

Functional Ability, Frailty and Risk of Falls in the Elderly: Relations with Autonomy in Daily Living

Inmaculada Tornero-Quiñones  1 , Jesús Sáez-Padilla  1 , Alejandro Espina Díaz  1 , Manuel Tomás Abad Robles  1 , Ángela Sierra Robles  1
Affiliations

Functional Ability, Frailty and Risk of Falls in the Elderly: Relations with Autonomy in Daily Living

Inmaculada Tornero-Quiñones et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine the differences in autonomy in both basic activities of daily life in instrumental activities of daily life, as well as functional capacity, fragility and risk of falls between an active group and a sedentary group. The individual associations of functional capacity, fragility and risk of falls were also analyzed, with autonomy in basic activities of daily living and in instrumental activities of daily living in the active group. In this cross-sectional investigation, 139 people from Huelva between 65 and 87 years of age were evaluated (Mean (M) = 73.1; standard deviation (SD) = 5.86); 100 were women and 39 men. The active and sedentary group were composed of 69 and 70 elderly people, respectively. The active group carried out a physical activity program. Among the results, a significant effect was seen in the multivariate contrast of the study variables, V = 0.24, F (5, 137) = 8.58, and p < 0.001; while in the linear regressions in the active group, the Vivifrail with the Barthel Index (Δ Adj. R2 = 0.15) and with the Lawton and Brody Scale (Δ Adj. R2 = 0.22) were used. In conclusion, the active group presented better values in all the variables evaluated in comparison to the sedentary group, establishing statistically significant differences. In addition, in the active group, it has been found that functional capacity is a significant predictive variable of autonomy in instrumental activities of daily living (22%), while fragility and the risk of falls are significant predictors of autonomy in activities of basic daily life (15%).

Keywords: exercise; falls; older people; prevention; quality of life.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Limón M.A. Envejecimiento activo: Un cambio de paradigma sobre el envejecimiento y la vejez. Aula Abierta. 2018;47:45–54. doi: 10.17811/rifie.47.1.2018.45-54. - DOI
    1. Martín M.T., Fernández-Mayoralas G., Prieto M.E. Potencialidades y fragilidades en el envejecer. Rev. Prism. Soc. 2018;21:511–520.
    1. Abellán A., Aceituno P., Pérez J., Ramiro D., Ayala A., Pujol R. Un perfil de las personas mayores en España, 2019. Indicadores Estadísticos Básicos. Informes Envejecimiento en Red. 2019;22:1–38.
    1. Díez C. Inactividad física y sedentarismo en la población española. Rev. Investig. Educac. Cienc. Salud. 2017;2:41–48.
    1. Gómez-Cabello A., Vila-Maldonado S., Pedrero-Chamizo R., Villa-Vicente J.G., Gusi N., Espino L., González-Gross M., Casajús J.A., Ara I. La actividad física organizada en las personas mayores, una herramienta para mejorar la condición física en la senectud. Rev. Esp. Salud Public. 2018;92:1–10. - PMC - PubMed