CAPACIDADE FUNCIONAL DE IDOSOS QUE PRATICAM CAMINHADA ORIENTADA.

The practice of group-oriented walking is increasingly intensified in communities, especially with elderly, in which the benefits of daily activities and other parameters that influence the quality of life of these patients. This study aimed to identify, evaluate and compare the functional capacity of two elderly groups practitioners and non-practitioners physical activity in Farroupilha-RS. We evaluated 30 elderly women allocated in two groups, according to the practice or not of regular physical exercise. Six minute walk test (6MWT) was performed according to ATS protocol (2002), which also includes measurement of blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR) and peripheral saturation (SpO2). Statistical analyses was performed using SPSS Statistic Data 21 (StatisticalPackage for Social Sciences), through Student's test, Mann-Whitney and qui-square test, considering p-value=0.05. There were differences between GCAN and GCON regarding initial systolic blood pressure (p-value=0.05), final systolic blood pressure (p-valeu=0.01) and final SpO2 (p-value=0.01). In conclusion guided walking proved to be effective in reducing blood pressure levels and peripheral saturation and the study was equivalent to other studies related to the distance covered in the 6MWT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]