Efeito de um programa multimodal de exercício físico na velocidade de reação de idosos de diferentes contextos

Abstract

As a result of the aging process, the psychomotor functioning of the older adults undergoes changes in reaction time (RT), movement time and performance speed, affecting tasks that require rapid movements in response to everyday situations. With aging, older people have less precise and slower movements. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the intervention program on the speed of reaction of these older adults and the differences between contexts, genders and age groups. Eighty-eight older adults were studied, between 65 and 92 years old (77.00±7.86), 35 males and 53 females. The experimental group (EG) included 56 older adults people who participated in the multimodal training program and the control group (CG) included 32 older adults people who maintained their usual level of physical activity. The older adults belonged to different contexts: daily living center (DLC), residential home (RH) and hospital center (HC). For the evaluation of simple RT, the instrument used was the Multi-Choice Reaction Time Apparatus. Between evaluations, the results suggest the absence of significant differences in EG and a significant decrease in performance of CG. In the 2nd evaluation, there were significant results between the EG and the CG in the preferred hand (PH) and in the non-preferred hand (NPH). The EG showed significant results between the genders, in the 2nd evaluation, in the NPH, and between the older adults HC vs RH and HC vs DLC, in both evaluations, in both hands. The CG showed significant results between the 2nd and 3rd age groups in the 1st evaluation, in the PH, and in the 2nd, in both hands. It also presented significant results among the older adults RH (disorders) vs RH and RH (disorders) vs DLC, in both evaluations, in both hands. So, we conclude that the practice of regular physical exercise can bring benefits in the performance of the reaction speed and, above all, in the quality of life and in the autonomy of the older population.