Physical Activity In Older People Essay

681 Words2 Pages

Older adults who practice regular physical activities can lead a healthier lifestyle. Continuous exercise in older adults can project healthy aging, improve physical capacity, and at times prevent select diseases. However, variables connected with no physical activity in older adults are not well studied. The purpose of the article “Social–Cognitive and Perceived Environment Influences Associated with Physical Activity in Older Australians” is to identify social cognitive and environmental factors that are connected with physical activity in older adults. This article review will discuss the methods, results, discussion as well as a conclusion of the selected article.
Methods
The design of the study was created by the researchers themselves and was evaluated by two logistic regression models, which were used to identify predictors of physical activity. There were a total of 449 subjects included in the study (Booth, et al, 2000). The subjects were selected randomly and were aged 60 and older. The researchers assessed the subjects’ self-reported physical activity and a wide range of social-cognitive and self-perceived environmental factors (Booth, et al, 2000). The participants were categorized as sufficiently active or inactive based upon their energy self-reported estimates of their weekly physical activities (Booth, et al, 2000).
Several variables were measured including : sociodemographic measures, attitudes, environmental measures, self-efficacy, social reinforcement, social modeling and physical activity participation (Booth, et al, 2000).
Results
The results of the study demonstrated a strong positive connection between social-cognitive function and environmental factors with exercise in older adults. Researchers discov...

... middle of paper ...

...ve functioning. This article is valuable because it demonstrates how an older adults’ environment and their social-cognitive state can influence their capacity to exercise. I would recommend this article to other students and I have learned from this article that older adults with more access to exercise equipment, and have the emotional support of family and friends will pursue a more active lifestyle. In the future, more research is needed to address the limitations of this study by allowing a larger sample size. It would also be valuable to alter the location in which the study is performed; this may yield a larger sample size giving us a deeper analysis. It would also be beneficial to add in the variable of socioeconomic status to this study, being that older adults who have less financial resources may have fewer opportunities to lead a physically active life.

Open Document