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Title

FUNCTIONAL PHYSICAL CAPACITY IN ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC MUSCULOSKELETAL SYMPTOMS DUE CHIKUNGUNYA FEVER: PARCIAL RESULTS

Background

Elderly patients with Chikungunya Fever (CF) may exhibit atypical and more severe clinical manifestations in the acute phase but little is known about these patients progress in the chronic phase of the disease. Considering that most patients who progress to the chronic phase of the disease present pain and joint stiffness, important functional impairment may occur, which may be worse in the elderly population. Objectives: To evaluate the functional physical capacity of the elderly (> 60 years old) with chronic musculoskeletal manifestations of Chikungunya Fever.

Materials and methods

Cross-sectional study comparing 2 groups: 14 elderly patients with CF chronic symptoms (G1) and 11 elderly people as control group (G2). The functional physical capacity evaluation was performed through the Senior Fitness Test (SFT), a battery of tests composed of 6 domains: strength and flexibility of upper and lower limbs, agility, dexterity, cardiorespiratory fitness and body mass index. Were also evaluated the level of musculoskeletal pain by visual analogic scale, presence of stiffness and the Health Assessment Questionnary (HAQ).

Results

To date were evaluated 25 patients, mostly women (92.0%), 14 of the G1 group and 11 of the G2 group. The mean age of the two groups was similar: 70.4 years (7.01) in G1 and 66.5 (5.80) in G2 (p = 0.139). The results of SFT are shown in table 1. The domain where a statistically significant difference between the two groups was identified was the manual grip strength (p = 0.002). Although no difference was detected on the FTS domains, except for manual grip strength, the results of both groups were lower than those considered normal, for age and sex, standardizes for FTS. The frequency of painful musculoskeletal symptoms was higher in G1 (100.0% in G1 vs 45.5% in G2, p = 0.000), but the mean intensity of pain in those reporting the symptom was similar in both groups (7.0 + 1.96 in the G1 and 8.0 + 1.41 in G2, p = 0.313), as well as the frequency of comorbidities or depressive symptoms. Stiffness was reported by 92.9% of patients in G1 and 27.3% in G2 (p=0.001). The HAQ results were higher in G1 (1.310.65) compared to G2 (0.430.61) (p=0.002).

Conclusions

Older patients with CF present a higher frequency of pain, stiffness and impairment of the manual function, measured by grip strength and HAQ, than elderly without the disease, even though the same comorbidities and similar physical function impairment are present.

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