Power lower members and muscular quality in older adults

Abstract

Aging leads to a decrease in physical capacities and negative
impact on functionality and quality of life. Power has been proposed
as the central variable to assess, nevertheless its approach in the
clinic is limited. The concept of muscle quality provides a functional
perspective of muscle tissue, it is usually evaluated by the sit to
stand test. To address the functional consequences of aging, it is
necessary to understand the relationship of both determinations.
A systematized review was carried out. The databases consulted
were PubMed and SCOPUS (through TIMBO). A total of 33 studies
met the inclusion criteria, 15 papers were added from the reference
lists, completing a total of 48 papers. Was determined an important
disagreement between the definitions and ways of calculating
muscle power and muscle quality. The muscle quality index emerges
as an estimate that associates both concepts and despite it has great
clinical relevance, although its potential is still limited. There are no
studies that analyze in detail the actions by phases during the sit to
stand tests together with instantaneous power values obtained by
dynamometry. It is necessary to analyze the assumptions of the
most used expressions for the evaluation of muscle power in the
clinic. In search of clinical evaluation protocols that allow clearer
discriminations, future research should aim to reach a consensus
about concept and the ways of estimating muscle power and muscle
quality and set more clearly their relationship.