PURPOSE:
to evaluate and characterize the balance during gait using the Dynamic Gait Index and Time Up and Go Test Brazilian version and the interference of the variables gender, age and falling events.
METHODS:
this is a clinical research, descriptive, qualitative and quantitative to analyze the results of applying the Dynamic Gait Index and Time Up and Go Test -Brazilian version, in 60 volunteers of both sexes and aged between 60 and 83 years (mean = 68, 57 ± 5.94). The research project was appreciated by the Ethics Committee of the institution and followed the recommendations of the opinion 196/96. For data analysis we used descriptive tests, Mann-Whitney and Chi-square (X ²), and was adopted at p <0.05.
RESULTS:
we found that 37 (61.7%) of the 60 subjects scored with indices below the normal range in Time Up and Go Test while Dynamic Gait Index in 19 (31.7%) volunteers had rates below the cutoff point. There was a statistically significant association between Dynamic Gait Index and the variables of age and falls. In this study the Time Up and Go Test showed statistically significant association with the variables gender and falls. Values statistically significant were found in the study of the all variables.
CONCLUSION:
it was a frequent finding functional alteration of gait and balance, and most of the sample tended to fall. Age was associated with changes in gait and balance, gender with tendency to falls, and reports of events falls stunted with both instruments applied. The results presented here underscore the need for scientific and professional training directed at primary and secondary care in the elderly population.
Aged; Gait; Postural Balance; Questionnaires; Accidental Falls
