Abstract
The aim of this pilot study was to determine the relationship between the quality of life and physical fitness in elderly women. This study consisted of 46 apparently healthy postmenopausal women over 60 years of age (age 69.0 +- 5.8 years; body weight 72.2 +- 11.6 kg; body height 160 +- 5.2 cm; body mass index 28.1 +- 4.4 kg.m-2).
Participants were senior citizen club members in Prague. We used the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) to evaluate the quality of life.
We assessed physical fitness using the 30-s chair stand, arm curl, handgrip strength, sit and reach, and 1-mile walk tests. Statistical analysis was performed using the Pearson correlation coefficient and Spearman correlation coefficient to verify the relationship between quality of life and physical fitness level.
The results from this study did not show a relationship between the quality of life and the upper limb strength (r = 0.161). A weak positive correlation was found between the quality of life and the lower limb strength (r = 0.249) and hand-grip strength (r = 0.239).
The correlation analysis showed a moderate positive correlation between the quality of life and flexibility of the lumbar spine and hamstring muscles (r = 0.360). Moderate negative correlation was found (r = -0,315) between the quality of life and the level of aerobic fitness.
We conclude that physical fitness level may influence the quality of life in elderly women.