Neuropsychological aspects of aging and physical activity practice: possible relations in elderly women; exercise for the aged / Aspectos neuropsicológicos do envelhecimento e prática de atividade física : possíveis relações em mulheres idosas

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

This is a descriptive research whose objective was to investigate the relationship between stress, depression, cognitive performance and physical activity practice of elderly women, considering the intellectual activity level. This research had a quanti-quali approach. The sample was constituted by 80 physically independent elderly women of Florianopolis, selected in a non-probabilistic way by convenience or accessibility (COOLICAN, 2004). The elderly were considered as practicing, intermediate and non-practicing physical activity by means of structured questions about frequency, time and period of doing physical activity. The personal characteristics as economic class, income, self-evaluation of health, physical activity and leisure history, as well the intellectual activities were evaluated by means of a form, elaborated based on the questionnaire developed by Andrade (2001). The stress was measured by the Perceived Stress Scale of Cohen, Karmack and Mermelstein (1983). The depression was assessed through the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) developed by Yesavage et al. (1983). All these tests were applied by interview, being used in this research the elderly personal accounts, which were done spontaneously during the data collection. The cognitive performance was evaluated through the Mini-Mental State Evaluation (FOLSTEIN et al., 1978), which measures the overall cognitive capacity, and through a cognitive evaluation battery, CogState, internationally validated and constituted by a set of tests that measure simple and choice reaction time, working memory, short-term memory and sustained attention (DARBY, 2004). The data was treated by descriptive and inferential statistics, observing the normality of distribution. The personal accounts analysis was oriented by hermeneutic-dialectics synthesized by Minayo (2004). The results demonstrated that the majority of the elderly women is practicing physical activity, but they not used to practice it in the past, mainly because of labour conditions. The elderly who had practiced physical activity in the past have higher economic class than the ones who had not practiced or had a heavy work. There was not a relation between current physical activity practice, economic class and income. There was no difference in stress, depression and cognitive performance between the practicing, intermediate and not practicing physical activity. The occurrence of emotional problems, as the childrens death, financial difficulties or serious ill, was determinant of the stress and depression level (p<0,001). The intellectual activity level was determinant of the cognitive performance of the elderly on the majority of tasks, including the overall cognitive capacity, choice reaction time, working memory and short-term memory. There was not any interactive effect of physical activity practice with the study variables. The personal accounts demonstrated other important elements for the analyses, as the economic class. It was observed that the current and past economic class is a determinant factor of several investigated questions. It was concluded that the physical activity is not determinant of stress, depression and cognitive performance of the elderly and that it is necessary to redirect the research and actions in order to consider the history, context and perception of the study population.

ASSUNTO(S)

idosas educacao fisica cognitive performance exercícios físicos para idosos stress elderly women depressão estresse desempenho cognitivo depressão em idosos physical activity depression in the aged. depression atividade física

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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