FISIEKE AKTIWITEIT EN VEROUDERING SE EFFEK OP GESELEKTEERDE GESONDHEIDSPARAMETERS VAN BLANKE MANS

Abstract

Physical activity and the effect of aging on selected health parameters among white males.The aging process effects all individuals. Aging is accompanied by physiological deterioration that can have a negative effect on physical and spiritual health. One of the primary characteristics of aging is that people tend to become physically inactive. Researchers affirm that physical activity provides protection against illness (Wicht., 1984:33; Blair et al., 1989a:122). With regard to this, the ACSM (1995:6) has shown that concrete evidence exists in research literature that proved that physical active people have a lower risk for illness like coronary heart diseases, hypertension, obesity, colon cancer and osteoporosis. With the process of aging, older people tend to suffer more from these previously mentioned illnesses (Wicht, 1984:34; Hagberg, 1995:993-1000; Hurley, 1995:224-229).Total wellness exists of different interrelated dimensions (Dunn, 1959:788; Robbins et ~ 1991:4) such as emotional, social, intellectual, physical, spiritual, psychological, environmental and occupational wellness. The spiritual dimension is regarded as a determinant of values and norms and is consequently also regarded as the catalyst of health or the basis of a healthy lifestyle and good health (Banks et al., 1984:17; Eberst, 1984:101; Sweeting,1990:3). Spiritual well-being (SWB) thus encompasses aspects such as the individual's religious persuasion and affiliation, social environment, social support, values, norms, self-concept, self-esteem, self-image, control orientation and experience of the meaningfulness of life. Spiritual well-being does not only refer to religiousity or religious persuasion, but also has a psychosocial component. The aim of the study was to determine whether regular exercise could delay the effect of aging on physical and spiritual health. The study was done on a group of white males (N=525) inhabitants of Potchefstroom, a city in the North-West Province in South-Africa. Subjects between the age 30-65 years were selected at random according to their street addresses. The following questionnaires were used as research instruments: health status was measured with Wyler' s Illness Rating Scale, spiritual wellbeing with Ellison's Spiritual Well-being Scale and physical activity with Sharkey' s Physical Activity Index (PAI). One-way and two-way variance analysis and the effect size calculation designed by Cohen were used to analyse the data. Aging showed a negative statistical significance (ps0.05) relationship with health status and participation in physical activity. With regard to spiritual well-being no statistical significant was found between aging and level of spiritual well-being. A positive relationship was found between physical activity, health status and aging. The results of the two-way analysis of variance showed that physical active respondents showed a statistically significant (ps0.05) as well as a practically significant (ES~0.5) better health status independent of age than the inactive respondents. A direct relationship was found between physical activity and spiritual wellness independent of age (Van der Merwe, 1995:63). The relationship was not statistically significant (p>0.05) in this study, probably because the groups were too small. The results indicate that aging has a negative effect on physical and spiritual health. The effect, with regard to health status, was however delayed among respondents that were physically active. In the case of spiritual well-being, physical activity showed no significant effect on the older respondents.