Functional disability: health conditions and physical activity practice in older adults

to verify the prevalence of functional disability among older adults and how it can affect their health conditions and the regular practice of physical activities.

this is a household and cross-sectional study conducted with older adults of both sexes. We verified the variables associated with functional disability by Poisson's regression.

around 420 older adults participated in this study (68.1% of them being women). We observed a statistically significant association between functional disability, the number of chronic diseases, self-assessed health conditions, and the practice of physical activities; the latter only being found among men. Older adults who reported presenting four or more chronic diseases, self-assessed their health conditions as poor, and were not used to practice physical activities, showing high prevalence of functional disability.

considering the changeable character of these variables, we recommend that prevention actions be taken, mainly at primary level, to delay the emergence of disability.