Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
2nd International and 12th Academic Geriatrics Congress, Antalya, Türkiye, 24 - 28 Nisan 2019, ss.86
Objective: Several physical performance tests have been developed for the elderly to be used in the clinical setting. Some of these tests are strength, some are static equilibrium, some are dynamic equilibrium, and some are for power measurement. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between these performance measurements.
Material and Methods: A total of 352 elderly (male, n = 107, 30.4%) patients aged 65 years and older who applied to the geriatric polyclinics of a medical faculty hospital in İstanbul between October 2016 and December 2018 were included in the study. Demographic data of the patients were obtained. Grip Strength, Time Up Go (TUG) test, Functional Reach (FR) test, Usual Gait Speed, 5 Times Sit to Stand Test and Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) tests were applied to all patients.
Results: Table 1 shows the age, height, weight and physical performance measurement results of the patients according to gender. As seen in Table 1, height, weight and physical performance measurements of men were significantly higher than women (p ≤0.01). Body mass indexes of males were significantly lower than females (p ≤0.01). Table 2 and Table 3 show the relationship between the physical performance measurements of men and women. According to the analysis, Usual Gait Speed was found to be strongly correlated to TUG in elderly men and women. Grip strength measurements were found to be moderately correlated with TUG, FR, 5 times sit to stand and SPPB in males, while in women it is found to be moderately related to all measurements. The relationship between women’s physical performance measurements was found to be slightly higher than that of men. Functional reach test found to be related with TUG, Usual Gait Speed, and SPPB test moderatly in man and women.
Conclusion: It is known that physical performance is an excellent
indicator of general health status in the elderly. Many tests have been
developed to test physical performance. In clinical settings, these tests
are preferred to be fast, practical and easily applicable. In this study,
the relationship between some of these physical performance tests
applied in clinical setting was investigated. According to the results,
grip strength was moderately related with FR and SPPB. Usual Gait
Speed was strongly related with TUG. These results suggest that the
application of one of these physical performance tests examined in
this study would yield moderately related results if there is no hand
dynamometer in the clinical setting or if there is not enough space
and time.