[Nutritional status and physical performance of elderly in the city of São Paulo]

To evaluate the nutritional status (NS) and its association with physical performance tests (PPT) of elderly in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

Design--Cross-sectional epidemiological study, in a population on a household basis as part of a multicenter study (the SABE Survey), coordinated by the Pan-American Health Organization. Setting-- From January/2000 to March/2001, the SABE survey comprised 2143 elderly (>or=60 yrs old), of both genders, selected by probabilistic sampling. Of these, 1894 (88.4%) took part in this study. The elderly were separated by gender and age group (60-69, 70-79 and>or=80 yrs old) for the tests and the NS was evaluated according to the Body Mass Index (BMI): underweight (BMIor=28 kg/m2). The PPTs included timed, repeated "chair stand" (CS), timed "pick up a pen" (PP) and standing balance (SB). The associations (CS and PP) were verified by the Cox Regression analysis and (SB) by the chi square test.

There were statistically significant associations between PP and SB and obese women.

Results showed association between nutritional status and functional capacity for women and obesity was the nutritional condition associated with the worst performance in the tests. Gender and age group should be considered in the association between nutritional status and physical performance.