DiScUSSiOn
This study assessed the influence of exercise over some aspects of the relation between elderly people and their stress coping strategies.
To that end, it was decided to not just determine the evolution of the stress coping capacity, as assessed by the Coping Strategies Inventory(12), but also to combine an assessment of the reflex of this capacity on the evaluated daily activities. As to the Coping Strategies Inventory, it demonstrated a significant increase in the first six months of activity, and then tended toward stabilization in the second period, leading us to believe that exercise, in terms of stress coping, shows its most evident effects at the initial phase of the process, remaining effective as intervention continues.
As to the HAP, it demonstrated an increase in functional performance in the evaluation times (6 and 12 months), thus indicating that the improvement in everyday activities of the group along the program was progressive during the intervention period.
This study found a significant relation between the regular practice of exercise and stress coping as reported in previous studies(15-17).
One of our objectives was also to compare two age groups, considering that our elderly population ranged widely in terms of age, but it was not possible to identify a significant difference between groups in none of the studied variables. This makes it possible for us to say that, at least for this population, the effects arising from a supervised exercise program are not affected by aging, and it occurred with similar intensity among the so-called “young elderly” and the “very elderly”.
Likewise, we aimed to demonstrate the existence of a different behavior in the group that previously practiced physical activities and those considered sedentary. The main aspect that is worth highlighting is that the group that exercised before had evident effects, in both variables, in the first semester, remaining them unchanged in the second phase, whereas sedentary subjects showed continued functional evolution also in the second phase of the research.