Identifying important factors for older adults’ physical activity participation across individual/group, structured/unstructured contexts

Katie L. Beck (), Lori E. Weeks, William J. Montelpare and Dany J. MacDonald
Additional contact information
Katie L. Beck: University of Prince Edward Island
Lori E. Weeks: Dalhousie University
William J. Montelpare: University of Prince Edward Island
Dany J. MacDonald: University of Prince Edward Island

European Journal of Ageing, 2016, vol. 13, issue 3, No 2, 209-218

Abstract: Abstract Most Canadian older adults do not meet physical activity recommendations. Researchers have investigated participation barriers and facilitators, with little consideration given to how specific factors influence activity participation for older adults. The purpose of this study was to identify unique factors that influence older adults’ activity selection and to determine in which type of setting they are preferred. Using a two-phase methodology, identification of 25 factors affecting participation was followed by 45 older adults ranking the factors within four categories of activities: individual unstructured, group unstructured, individual structured, and group structured. Phase 1 analysis ranked each factor within each category. Further analysis found that there was a statistical difference between categories, indicating that older adults found different factors important, depending on the category of physical activity in question. This led to phase 2 analyses which identified three levels of factor groupings including the following factors: level A: fun, satisfaction, commitment, and energize; level B: safety, learning, awareness, internal motivation, and productive; and level C: meaningful contribution, intensity, and motivation. Additionally, some factors which were not identified in all categories were identified as unique to certain categories. These included creativity, hobbies, meaningful contribution, spiritual, competence, interaction casual, regularly scheduled, competition, self-efficacy physical, and team. This information can be used by individuals as well as program providers to nurture these factors within physical activity programs, which may lead to increased participation in this age cohort.

Keywords: Older adults; Physical activity; Factors; Importance; Participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-016-0376-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:13:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s10433-016-0376-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... iences/journal/10433

DOI: 10.1007/s10433-016-0376-1

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Ageing is currently edited by Marja Aartsen, Susanne Iwarsson and Prof. Dr. Matthias Kliegel

More articles in European Journal of Ageing from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().