Relation between Body Mass Index and Physical Fitness in Elderly Men

Abstract

This work has been performed to analyse the effect of 60-75 years old male body mass indexes (BMI) on physical fitness levels. 738 elderly men, who do not have chronic health problems and who could maintain their daily life activities independently, included on a voluntary basis to the research. Those whose BMI values are less than 18.50 kg / m2 are weak, those between 18.50 and 24.99 kg / m2 are normal, those between 25.00 and 29.99 kg / m2 are overweight and those who are 30 kg / m2 and more are classified as obese. BMI categories have been divided into 3 groups: Normal (226 cases), Overweight (391 cases) and Obese (121 cases). Senior Fitness Test (SFT) protocol created by Rikli and Jones (2001) was used to determine the physical fitness levels of the participants. PSS 22 statistics program and the Kolmogorov Smirnov test were used in order to analyse the data obtained from the measurements. The data were presented as arithmetic mean, standard deviation and differences between averages. The analysis of the test scores with the BMI classification of the participants was done with the One Way Anova-Shaffe test. The relation between body weights and test scores according to the BMI Categories was analyzed with pearson correlation test. Statistical significance was examined at the level of 0.05 and 0.01.According to the findings of the study, the difference between the physical fitness test scores of the participants in the Normal and Overweight BMI category was not found to be significant. As a consequence, it is necessary to create exercise programs in order to develop physical fitness levels which are thought to decrease together in old age and which are found to be significantly low in obese elderly people. Particularly, it is considered important for elderly people who are inactive and living in cities to participate in such exercise programs in order to be able to do their daily life activities independently.