MUSCLE STRENGTH AND HISTORY OF HEAVY MANUAL WORK AMONG ELDERLY TRAINED WOMEN AND RANDOMLY CHOSEN SAMPLE-POPULATION

The association between a history of heavy work and muscle strength wa s studied among 51 physically active women aged 66-85 years trained in sports and 41 women aged 70-81 years selected randomly from the popul ation register. Maximal isometric muscle strength of hand grip, arm fl exion, leg extension and trunk flexion and extension were measured usi ng specially constructed dynamometers' The capacity of the abdominal m uscles was evaluated by means of a sit-up test. The study included an interview dealing with the subjects' histories of heavy manual employm ent. The mean histories of heavy work for the trained and untrained wo men were 24 and 36 years, respectively. The trained women showed signi ficantly greater maximal isometric muscle strength and abdominal muscl e capacity than the untrained women. Among the trained women there was no correlation between the amount of heavy work and muscle performanc e. Among the untrained women the amount of heavy work correlated posit ively with maximal isometric trunk extension strength. The results wou ld suggest that among elderly women, whether physically active or not, a history of heavy work has no systematic associaton with muscle stre ngth.