Masterarbeit

Abstract

Background: The positive effects of physical activity on the physical performance could be proven several times. Despite these awareness a large number of elderly people do not get any or only insufficient exercise. A change to an active lifestyle as well as its maintenance proves difficult. In order to motivate elderly people to physical activity, it is necessary to evaluate which type of activity is preferred. Therefore, the objective of this work is to compare the adherence rate for intervention programmes of endurance, strength, balance, Tai Chi and combined training programmes, thus deriving the popularity of the individual training programmes for seniors.  Methods: Forty-one studies in endurance, traditional resistance, high-velocity resistance (power), balance, and Tai Chi training as well as in multimodal training with data about the adherence rate were included. The adherence rate was evaluated by linear regression analysis. Results: No significant dependence of the adherence rate on the type of activity could be detected. Comparing the individual training programmes, endurance and traditional resistance training resulted in a significantly higher adherence rate (9.4%; P< 0.029 and 11.5%; P< 0.004) than the multimodal programmes. In the other kinds of training, however, no significantly higher adherence could be proven. Conclusion: These investigations, as well as earlier ones, show that endurance and resistance activities are popular with elderly people. As far as high-velocity resistance, balance, Tai Chi training and the multimodal programmes are concerned, no preferences could be pointed out in this paper. Apart from the type of activity, there are other factors that affect participation in physical activity, such as intervention duration, training frequency, - intensity and context as well as age, sex, personal factors and social support.

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