ABSTRACT
Introduction: Different patterns of activities were reported due to different cultural attitudes of the individuals. Socio-economic status should be taken into consideration when exploring the effect of socio-economic status on health over the life course. Available literature brings out limited studies on socio-economic status and its association with physical activity. In view of above, present study was undertaken to determine an association between selected demographic variables, BMI and physical activity, among older adults, in south India. Materials and Methods: Present study is a community based cross-sectional study, undertaken among older adults (> 55 years and above). Purposive sampling method was used to select the study subjects. A total of 63 older adults were included in the study. The study was conducted over a period of one and half years from 01 January 2018 to 30 June 2019, in selected urban and semi-urban areas in Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka (India). Results: The study comprised of a total of 63 older adults which included 32 (50.79%) males while remaining 31(49.20%) were females. The physical activity levels were found to be highest (33.33%) in 55-60 years age group while these were lowest (0.00%) in 75 years and above, age group. The association between physical activity and age, was found to be statistically significant. (p value= 0.015) Discussion: In our study, out of 21 older adults from middle SES class 13 (61.90%) were found to be having low physical activity, while in lower SES group out of 21 subjects 9 (42.85%) were found to be having high physical activity levels. However, the subjects from upper SES group, revealed low levels of physical activity as only 02(09.52%) out of 21 subjects showed high levels of physical activity. Conclusion: Present study brings out significant association between physical activity and BMI, while no association was observed between socio-economic status and physical activity. Further, low levels of physical activity were observed across all SES groups,
ABSTRACT
Background: Functional mobility is defined as the ability of a person to move from place to place in the environment in order to participate in the activities of daily living. A person with overweight and obesity have a greater risk of experiencing mobility disability and those patients will have restrictions in activities at home, work, school and in the community thereby having a negative impact on their health related quality of life. Fear of falling in elderly is a major cause of loss of independence, which has an effect on the physical function in them. Purpose of the study: To find out the relationship between BMI and fear of fall on functional mobility in elderly Result: Out of 30 subjects, 15 subjects were overweight and 15 were normal BMI. Out of 15 overweight subjects, 53.3% were males and 46.7% were females. The mean age of overweight participants was 68.46±2.77. The mean scores for BMI were 27.82±1.56, for FOF 4.93±1.09and for FM 21.53±3.99. FOF and FM were negatively correlated with Overweight. The correlation was not significant. Out of 15 subjects with normal BMI, 53.3% were males and 46.7% were females. The mean age of participants with normal BMI was 68.86±3.62. The mean scores for BMI were 21.40±1.61, for FOF 5.93±.883and for FM 19.26±3.55. FOF and FM were positively correlated with normal BMI. The correlation was not significant. Conclusion: The overweight individual have more fear of fall (FOF) compared with individuals with normal BMI. The functional mobility (FM) is decline in overweight individuals than individuals with normal BMI. Implications: A decrease in sedentary lifestyle and regular physical activity can improve health related quality of life of elderly.