IJCS | Volume 32, Nº6, November / December 2019

559 Figure 4 - Results of WHOQoL-OLD and WHOQoL-BREF before and after 12 weeks of walking training. GDS: geriatric depression scale; VAS: visual analogue scale; TG: training group; CG: control group. Pre-training Post-training TG CG Pre-training Post-training TG CG are supported by previous studies showing that aerobic exercise seems to increase pain threshold in response to several factors, including ischemic pain, compression and thermal stimulus. 35,36 In addition, our findings seem to have a broad applicability in clinical practice, since evidence has shown that even healthy elderly subjects undergoing walking training can develop physical pain in an 18-month period. Therefore, our data suggest that a three-month program of moderate-intensity walking training has a protective role on chronic physical pain in healthy elderly individuals. 20,22,35 Interestingly, body pain and depressive symptoms are two domains of the WHOQoL-OLD and WHOQoL-BREF questionnaires. Nevertheless, although both parameters were reduced in response to our exercise protocol, QOL remained unchanged in the TG. In Alabarse et al. Depression and pain in healthy active elderly Int J Cardiovasc Sci. 2019;32(6):553-562 Original Article