Muñoz-Arribas Alberto, Vila-Maldonado Sara, Pedrero-Chamizo Raquel, Espino Luis, Gusi Narcis, Villa Gerardo, Gonzalez-Gross Marcela, Casajús José Antonio, Ara Ignacio, Gómez-Cabello Alba
Grupo de Investigación GENUD Toledo. Universidad de Castilla La Mancha. España..
Grupo de investigación ImFINE. Departamento de Salud y Rendimiento Humano. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. España..
Nutr Hosp. 2014 Apr 1;29(4):894-900. doi: 10.3305/nh.2014.29.4.7212.
The aim of this study was to determine the changes in physical fitness over two years of following up in octogenarian people and to check whether a sedentary lifestyle modify these variations.
Physical fitness of 182 subject (48 men, 134 women) with a mean age of 82,3 ± 2,3 years were evaluated using 8 different tests. A repeated measures analysis was carried out to see the differences between the two evaluation periods and to see the physical fitness differences between sedentary people (sit ≥ 4 hours/day) and non sedentary people (sit < 4 hours/day).
Between the two evaluation periods, we found a significant decrease in the agility test (p < 0.05), walking speed (p < 0.01) and endurance (p < 0.01). In relation to the subjects who spent sitting 4 hours/day there was a decrease in the walking speed test between the two evaluations (p < 0.05). Moreover, there was a decrease of walking speed and endurance between the two evaluation periods in both sedentary and nonsedentary people (p < 0.05).
In two years of following up, there are adverse changes in the level of physical fitness in octogenarians. Long periods of sitting time may translate into a loss of agility. Walking speed and endurance seem to be the components of physical fitness more affected by the ageing process in this population; and this loss is not determined by the hours of sitting per day.
