Associação entre equilíbrio, marcha e síndrome da fragilidade em idosos residentes em área urbana

• Ano de defesa: 2012
• Autor(a) principal: Salmito, Marjorie Coelho de Araújo
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Palavras-chave em Português: Idoso; Marcha
• Link de acesso: http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/4590

Frailty is a clinical syndrome of multifactorial nature that allows for the identification of elderly people with increased vulnerability to adverse events such as falls, hospitalizations, disability and death. Changes in physical function, such as on balance and gait, associated to frailty, and which could have a role in the occurrence of these adverse events, are not yet sufficiently established and their better understanding can foster the development of strategies for the prevention and treatment of this clinical condition. OBJECTIVE - To analyze the association between change in balance, gait and fragility syndrome in elderly frail, pre-frail and non-frail elderly individuals living in an urban area of the city of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. METHODS - This was a cross sectional study with 144 elderly, individuals classified accordingly to the Fried et al., (2001), as frail, pre-frail and non-frail, conducted from March 2009 to October 2010 at the Frailty Clinic of the Elderly Care Center (Ambulatory of Fragility of Centro de Atenção ao Idoso) of the Federal University of Ceará - UFC. Data collection consisted of two tests: Evaluation of the Performance Oriented Mobility (POMA) divided in two parts: assessments of balance (POMA-Balance) and gait (POMA-Gait), and the Timed Up and Go (TUG), which assesses mobility and fall risk. RESULTS - Variations on balance evaluated by POMA-Balance (static balance) were found in 62.9% of the frail elderly, in 38.3% of the pre-frail and in 18.4% of the non-frail (p <0.0001). Variations on gait evaluated by POMA-Gait (dynamic balance) were found in 77.1% of the frail elderly, in 43.3% of the pre-frail and in 30.6% of the non-frail (p <0.001). Variations in balance and gait (POMA-Total) were observed in 88.6% of frail elderly, in 66.7% of the pre-frail and in 42.9% of the non-frail (p=0.001). In TUG, 91.5% of the frail elderly, 70.0% of the pre-frail and 53.0% of the non-frail (p <0.0001) showed alterations in mobility and risk of falls. Among the criteria for the diagnosis of the frailty syndrome, only the walking speed was associated with balance (p <0.031). The relationship between balance (POMA-Balance) and frailty, adjusted by sex, age, body mass index (BMI) was statistically significant, which did not occur when it was adjusted by sex, age, body mass index (BMI) and variations in gait (POMA-Gait). CONCLUSION - Balance variation is associated with frailty syndrome with regards to the dynamic (dynamic balance), and may be related to altered gait present in frail elderly.