Centro Universitário do Triangulo - Secretaria de Estado de Saúde ...

ABSTRACT
Santos, L. S. Level of Physical Activity and its relationship with Quality of Life, Anxiety and
Depression in non-institutionalized Elderly. 2008. 65 P. Mastering Dissertation -
Physiotherapy, Centro Universitário do Triângulo (University Center of the Triangle),
Uberlândia.
Introduction: The present study arises from the knowledge that the ageing process is
universal to all human being. This is clearly seeing as well as that the world population and
also the brasilian one had increased at this specific population, showing its problems and
illness common to them, the physical activity has been considered one of the ways to preserve
and to improve health condition.
General Objective: To evaluate the level of physical activity and its relationship with Quality
of Life, anxiety and depression of the elderly participating in the center of coexistence and
community, in the city of Cuiabá, state of Mato Grosso, in Brazil.
Methods: The sample included 200 elderly of both genders, divided into two groups: 100
elderly people who practiced physical activity and 100 elderly people who did not practiced
physical activity. The instruments for data collecting, applied as a separate interview, were: 1)
Baecke Modified Questionnaire for the elderly on the level of activity; 2) Quality of life SF-
36 Questionnaire; and 3) Scale of Anxiety and Depression - HAD. Data were analyzed
through averages and standard deviation, t-Student test was used to compare the variables age,
HAD scale (anxiety and depression) and the areas of the SF-36 questionnaire. The Pearson's
correlation coefficient (r) was used to verify the association between the level of physical
activity and age, HAD scale and areas of SF-36 questionnaire. Level of physical activity, age
and areas of SF-36 questionnaire were compared among groups of scale of anxiety and
depression-HAD usig ANOVA. Significance level of 5% was adopted.
Results: The results showed that in the comparison between the PAL and the areas of the
questionnaire SF-36, the average scores were higher in the active group, and that the scale of
the anxiety and depression scores was higher in the sedentary group. In correlation between
the PAL and all variables, it appears that the domain functional capacity and PAL have a
moderate correlation, and, among other variables, the correlation is weak. Moreover, it was
found that elderly people who have the combination of symptoms of anxiety and depression
have lower scores in PAL and in the areas of the questionnaire SF-36.
Conclusion: Level of physical activity influences the quality of life and decreases the
symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Keywords: physical activity level; quality of life; elderly; anxiety and depression.