The effect of BMI on motor disability in elderly women

Introduction and

The health and mobility of elderly people, especially women, is of great importance. High BMI is one of the most effective factors that can increase the biomechanical stresses on motor systems, which sometimes leads to functional disabilities.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of BMI on the musculoskeletal pain, the motor disability and the difficulty of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) in elderly women.

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 140 elderly women in the two groups; high (> 25)and normal(between 18.5-24.9) BMI with seventy women in each group.Musculoskeletal pain, pain intensity, the difficulty of five ADL and the motor disability using Orebro Musculoskeletal Pain Questionnaire (OMPQ) were evaluated in both groups. Independent sample T-test and Pearson correlation test were used respectively to compare the variables between the two groups and determine the correlation between the variables.
Findings: The prevalence of chronic musculoskeletal pain was 57% in the high BMI group and 13% in the normal BMI group.Moreover, Ther were significant differences between the two groups in BMI (P =0.001), musculoskeletal pain history (P=0.001), the motor disability (P =0.001) and the difficulty of ADL (P =0.001). Also, there were positive correlations between high BMI and musculoskeletal pain (r = 0.83), the motor disability (r = 0.79) and the difficulty in ADL (r = 0.63).

The findings of this study support the fact that high BMI was significantly associated with musculoskeletal pain, increasing ADL difficulty and an enhanced motor disability.