Impact of Traditional Oriental Medicine and Physical Activity on Bone Mineral Density and Quality of Life of Elderly

Figueira; HA; Vale; RGS; Figueira; AA; Figueira; OA; Figueira; JA; Cader; AS; Dantas; EHM

Volume : III, Issue : VII, July - 2014

Impact of Traditional Oriental Medicine and Physical Activity on Bone Mineral Density and Quality of Life of Elderly

Figueira, Ha, Vale, Rgs, Figueira, Aa, Figueira, Oa, Figueira, Ja, Cader, As, Dantas, Ehm

Abstract :

BACKGROUND: Physical activity plus traditional oriental medicine spread as a possible easy way to deal with healthy ageing. OBJECTIVE: establishing the impact of Physic Activity (PA) and Traditional Oriental Medicine (TOM) on Bone Mineral Density (BMD) and Quality of Life (QOL) of elderly. DESIGN: Inquire analytical descriptive ex–postfacto research. SAMPLE: Elderly both genders non–selected, volunteers, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, randomly selected from two groups: served with TOM techniques in ABACO/Sohaku–in; non–served by TOM. METHODS: QOL evaluation via WHOQOL–Old questionnaire, and PA evaluation via Baecke. Baecke subdivided the two initial groups (TOM/non–TOM) in four (active/sedentary): g1. TOM+PA; g2. TOM+nonPA; g3. nonTOM+PA; g4. nonTOM+nonPA. A posteriori, BMD was evaluated using dual–energy X–ray absorptiometry (DXA) – presented by the elderly. Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques compared the BMD and QOL (p<0.05). RESULTS: Evaluating the QOL total score (TS) the ANOVA test showed higher scores in intergroup comparisons at g1–g2: p<0.001; g1–g4:p<0.001; g2–g4:p<0.001; and g3–g4:p<0.001. The BMD evaluation presented intergroup comparisons higher values in L2–L4: g1–g2: p<0.001; g1–g4: p<0.001; g1–g3: p=0.023. G1 presented highest values for both BMD and QOL, followed by g3, to which follows g2. CONCLUSION: Physical Activity presented predominant gain of BMD and QOL, with strong influence of Traditional Oriental Medicine.