Quality of life based on level of physical activity among elderly residents of urban and rural areas

Abstract Objective: To analyze quality of life (QOL) according to level of physical activity among elderly persons living in rural (RA) and urban (UA) areas. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study, analyzing 358 elderly residents of RA and 139 of UA, in the municipal region of Palmas, Paraná, Brazil was performed. Quality of life, level of physical activity and economic condition were evaluated. For the analysis of the continuous variables, the student’s t-test or the Mann-Whitney test were used, based on the normality or otherwise of the data. Pearson's chi-squared or Fischer’s exact test were used to analyze the categorical variables. Results: The general perception of QOL reported in RA was better than in UA (p0.05), irrespective of place of residence, and active elderly persons had better QOL scores than insufficiently active or sedentary individuals, again irrespective of place of residence (p摘要 研究目的：分析巴西巴拉那州帕尔马斯市辖区内，居住于农村（RA）与城市（UA）地区的老年人按体育活动水平划分的生活质量（Quality of Life, QOL）差异。研究方法：本研究为描述性横断面研究，共纳入该市辖区内358名农村老年居民与139名城市老年居民作为研究对象。对研究对象的生活质量、体育活动水平与经济状况进行评估。针对连续性变量的统计分析，根据数据分布的正态性分别采用学生t检验或曼-惠特尼U检验；针对分类变量的统计分析，则采用皮尔逊卡方检验或费希尔精确检验。研究结果：无论居住地域类型如何，农村老年人报告的总体生活质量感知均优于城市老年人（p0.05）；且无论居住地域如何，运动充足的老年人的生活质量评分均高于运动不足或久坐不动的个体，差异同样具有统计学意义（p ）。