Functional disability: health conditions and physical activity practice in older adults

Objective: to verify the prevalence of functional disability among older adults and how it can affect their health conditions and the regular practice of physical activities. Method: this is a household and cross-sectional study conducted with older adults of both sexes. We verified the variables associated with functional disability by Poisson's regression. Results: around 420 older adults participated in this study (68.1% of them being women). We observed a statistically significant association between functional disability, the number of chronic diseases, self-assessed health conditions, and the practice of physical activities; the latter only being found among men. Older adults who reported presenting four or more chronic diseases, self-assessed their health conditions as poor, and were not used to practice physical activities, showing high prevalence of functional disability. Conclusion: considering the changeable character of these variables, we recommend that prevention actions be taken, mainly at primary level, to delay the emergence of disability.