Background. This study examined the effect of age and gender on seven physical performance tests in elderly adults aged 60 to 79 years without physical disability.
Methods. A sample of 230 older adults met the criteria and participated. The performance tests were: grip strength, timed chair stands (TCS), functional reach (FR), usual and fastest gait speed, timed up and
go (TUG), and the Berg Balance Scale (BBS). The means and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for these tests.
Results. Men outperformed women on all measures examined except for the TUG and TCS, which showed no gender difference. An age effect was observed for the BBS only.
Conclusions. These values are useful for the clinical interpretation of the physical functional status of community-dwelling older adults.
