Functional fitness trends among older adults in Portugal between 2008 and 2018: Keeping up with a healthy aging process.

OBJECTIVES

Maintaining a healthy aging process is vital to combating and delaying the adverse health outcomes faced by the growing older adult population, where a key aspect to achieving healthy aging is the preservation of functional fitness. This study aims to present trends on the functional fitness of Portuguese older adults between 2008 and 2018 and build new normative reference standards for the Senior Fitness Battery Tests.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

METHODS

Functional fitness was measured with the Senior Fitness Battery Tests in two national representative cohorts of the Portuguese older adult population (≥65 years) using the 2008 (n = 4712) and 2018 (n = 2717) surveys. Changes were assessed according to sex and age group. Sex and age-group normative fitness scores were developed.

RESULTS

Overall findings suggested that older adults' point prevalence for arm-curl, 8-ft up-and-go, and 30-s chair sit-to-stand remained stable between 2008 and 2018, with declining trends being observed for the 6-min walk and back-scratch tests. However, results for trends varied when stratified by sex and age categories.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest a trend toward a stabilization of most of the functional fitness tests over the past decade, but with a critical decline in the 6-min walk test. Thus, this test should be targeted by future health-care policies. Moreover, this investigation provides new and updated normative reference standards for the Senior Fitness Battery Tests that should be used as a tool to promote a healthy aging process among Portuguese older adults.