Introduction:

The increasing aging of the population brings along increasing morbidity and chronicity, which leads to the fragility that affects older adults by the end of their life course.

Objective:

to establish the level of fragility, physical performance and risk of falls among older adults in an area of Cali, Colombia.

Material and methods:

Descriptive study among a group of older adults in the city of Cali, Colombia. The study had ethical approval and all participants granted informed consent. The study used the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and levels of fragility in participants was ranked in vigorous, pre-fragile and fragile.

Results:

197 older adults took part in the study, most of them women averaging 73.88 ± 7.96 years old. Functional reach and hand dynamometer tests showed that 14,2% of the patients are in the risk of falls; SPPB showed that 12,7% have functional limitation and 76,6% are in the pre-fragility and fragility stages.

Conclusion:

The majority of older adults in the Comuna 19 area of Cali, Colombia, are women in pre-fragile stage, which clearly poses the risk that their condition can worsen into the fragility condition in the short and midterm, due to aging and a decline in physical performance.

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