Functional capability of 68-year-old people in the town of Jyväskylä

A cross-sectional study on the functional capability of 68-year-old persons was performed in 1973 in the town of Jyväskylä in Central Finland. The mean values of the measured variables for men and women, respectively, were the following: vital capacity 1.7 l/m2 and 1.2 l/m2; threshold of auditory perception (4000 cps) 49.0 dB and 28.4 dB, digit symbol 23.9 and 24.3 digits; digit span 9.5 and 9.7 numbers; simple reaction time 0.27 sec; pred. max VO2 26.6 and 21.6 ml/kg - min. Persons with high physical working capacity or good self-assessed health attained better results compared to persons with low PWC or poor self-assessed health.