ASSOCIATION BETWEEN POSTURAL BALANCE AND FUNCTIONAL STATUS IN POST COVID-19 CONDITION IN NON-HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS

Individuals with post COVID-19 conditions risk to develop short and/or mid term neuromuscular sequels that may involve changes on balance control. The POST-COVID-19 Functional Scale (PCFS) has the potential to evaluate the general functional capacity, however, if the PCFS can also be used to measure the impact on the balance control over the post COVID-19 functionality, remains unclear. To investigate if COVID-19 may impact the balance control and if possible, changes are associated with the functional status of the individual estimated by PCFS. 60 adults were spited into two groups: 30 patients on control group and 30 on post COVID-19 group. Both groups underwent clinical evaluation of balance control based on the following tests: Functional Reach Test (FRT), Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Time Up and Go (TUG), Tinetti Balance Test (TINETTI) and Mini-BESTest (MBT). Besides, the post COVID group answered the PCFS questionnaire. For data statistical analysis, it was used the Student's T Test, comparing the score found on groups’ balance tests. The Pearson's correlation test was used to correlate the balance tests and PCFS. The multiple linear regression was used to identify which balance variable may play important role on PCFS’ prevision, with significancy level of 5%. It wasn't found significative differences (p>0,05) between groups for: BBS (average ± control standard deviation and post COVID-19: 49.200±7.863 and 49.300±8.322 points); TUG (12.500±4.925 and 11.033±5.109 seconds); TINETTI (24.467±4.890 and 25.633±3.873 points); and MBT (22.500±5.361 and 22.967±4.716 points). But, for FRT, there was significative difference (p=0,046) between groups post COVID-19 (31,333±6,563 cm) and control (28,083±5,748 cm). The balance variables showed significative correlation (p