INDICATORS OF FUNCTIONAL FITNESS AND COGNITIVE COMMITMENT IN ELDERLY

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: Cognitive losses are among the most prevalent events in the elderly population and can cause functional deficits. Among the available non-drug prevention and treatment alternatives, the increase in functional fitness levels is presented as an important strategy suggesting improvements in the physical and cognitive function of the elderly triggered by exercise. Objective: To determine the predictive power of functional fitness indicators and establish their cutoff points as discriminators of cognitive impairment in the elderly. Methods: The sample comprised 310 elderly people who answered a questionnaire comprising sociodemographic information, lifestyle habits, hospitalization in the last 12 months, presence of comorbidity, and the Mini-Mental State Examination. Functional fitness was assessed using the Hand Grip Strength (HGS) and sitting and rising from a chair tests. To identify predictors of cognitive impairment, analysis of Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves was adopted, with a confidence interval of 95% (95%CI). Subsequently, the cut-off points with their respective sensitivities and specificities were identified. The analyses were performed respecting the significance level of 5%. Results: It was observed that some functional fitness indicators showed significant Area Under the Curve (AUC), and the sit-and-stand test (AUC=0.72; 95%CI: 0.64-0.77) showed the best results. The best cut-off points for the HGS and sit-and-stand tests were 18,8 kgf and eight repetitions, respectively. Conclusion: The results of the present study allow us to conclude that the sit-to-stand test is moderately efficient in discriminating the presence of cognitive impairment in the elderly. Level of Evidence III; Study Cross-sectional.