Investigation of the relationship between physical activity and frailty level in the elderly

Frailty is a multidimensional concept that affects many areas such as walking, movement, balance, muscle strength, motor processing, cognition, nutrition, endurance and physical activity. Our aim is to analyze the relationship between physical activity level and fragility levels of sedentary elderly individuals who have done professional sports by adapting the FAST Frailty Scale to Turkish. 450 individuals over 65 years, sedentary (SOA, n=300) and professionally engaged in sports (PSOA, n=100) constituted the sample of the study. Data collection tools were the questionnaire in which the socio-demographic information of the participants was questioned, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short and the FAST-TR scale. SPSS 22 package programs were used in the analysis of the data. Content validity was used in the validity analysis of the scale. Reliability analysis was evaluated with Cronbach's Alpha coefficient and test-retest. The relationship between physical activity and frailty level was analyzed with Chi-Square correlation. Student T test was used to compare other variables. p<0,05 was considered significant. FAST-TR content validity mean CGI was 0.99. The Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient was 0,794, and the test-retest reliability was 0,747. It was determined that the mean of memory, mobility, mood, physical performance, general health, medication and multiple morbidity and continence areas of SOAs were found to be significantly lower than those of PSOAs. There was no significant difference between nutrition, functional status and pain area averages There was no relationship between frailty level of both groups and age group, education level, income status, frequency of contact with their children, perception of age, and assessment of old age. A correlation of p=0,017 was found between physical activity score and fragility score in PSOAs. A negative low correlation was found between low quality of life and high total frailty scores of SOAs p=0.002. No correlation was found between physical activity and total frailty score of both groups (p>0,05). It was determined that the physical activity and quality of life averages of PSOAs were found to be significantly higher than the SOAs (p<0,05). The frailty mean of PSOAs was found to be statistically significantly lower than the SOAs at the level of p<0.001. As a result, FAST-TR is a very valid and reliable measurement tool in determining the frailty levels of individuals over the age of 65. Frailty is one of the factors that reduces the quality of life, and physical activity can prevent fragility as well as increase the quality of life.