Abstract

PALELLA-LOPEZ, Patricia Belén; MASI, Celia  and  VELAZQUEZ-COMELLI, Patricia Carolina. Nutritional status, functional condition and self-esteem level of women over 60 years old. Rev. cient. cienc. salud [online]. 2022, vol.4, n.1, pp.38-46. ISSN 2664-2891.  https://doi.org/10.53732/rccsalud/04.01.2022.38.

Introduction. Properly planned moderate physical exercise improves physical condition and self-esteem and could prevent a series of diseases and complications characteristic of old age. Objective. To assess the nutritional status, functional condition and self-esteem of women over 60 years old. Methodology. Cross-sectional descriptive study. Nutritional status was assessed by weight, height, and waist circumference. A battery of tests was applied to assess physical and functional capacity and self-esteem was assessed using the Rosenberg scale. Results. 22women over 60 years old participated, with a mean age of 66.5±7.8 years; 7 were physically active and 15 physically not active. Of the totality, 15 women were overweight. Overweight was present more than twice in the physically inactive participants, and the cases of obesity corresponded only to the physically inactive (p=0.170). It was observed that 16 women presented very high cardiovascular risk, 13 of them were physically inactive. Physically active women presented better physical condition, showing significant differences in the agility and aerobic resistance tests (p=0.004; p=0.001, respectively). According to the level of self-esteem, 19 of 22 women had high self-esteem. Only 3 cases of low or medium self-esteem were observed, corresponding to the group of physically inactive women. Conclusion. The frequency of excess weight, cardiovascular risk, impaired functional condition, and low or average self-esteem was higher in inactive adult women.

Keywords : nutritional status; physical activity; physical aptitude; self-esteem.

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