Implicações da terapia aquática no equilíbrio e capacidade funcional em idosos da comunidade

Abstract

Brazil in recent years has seen a huge increase in life expectancy, consequently growing the number of elderly people in the country. Aging causes changes in health and functionality, making activities necessary to preserve its resources. Aquatic therapy is one of the activities that can be developed by the elderly, and can be worked through the Halliwick method in order to improve and preserve as needed by the individual. The study aimed to evaluate as a result of aquatic therapy in balance and functional capacity in elderly people in the community. Twenty-nine elderly people participated in the study, for 24 periods, twice a week and each session lasted 50 minutes. They were taken before and after treatment with the time up and go tests, Berg Balance Scale, 6-minute walk test. The association between variables was performed using the Pearson correlation index. Throughout the analysis, a 95% confidence interval and a 5% significance index (p <0.05) were adopted. After analyzing the data, improvements in the values were identified after the application of the aquatic rehabilitation protocol, regarding the 6-minute walk test p * equal to 0.016 *, Berg Balance Scale p * equal to 0.001 and time up and go with p * equal to 0.001, so the aquatic therapy protocol was effective for the researched population.