Barriers And Benefits At The Elderly

Barriers/Benefits to exercise in the elderly

In my first article, “Barriers to Physical Activity in the Elderly” it stated its purpose was to identify some of the personal, behavioral, and environmental barriers that prevent older adults from being active. When looking for the hypothesis it was a little more difficult because there was no set assumption about why. It only stated that although the elderly are aware of the consequences when not being physical active they still choose to not exercise. The methods of this study was quite simple, it took 19 elders of all genders from age 60-80 and presented them with a questionnaire that was 22 questions and grouped into 5 groups of barriers; physical, psycho-personal, beliefs, psycho-motivational, and external. After analyzing the data it was shown that the biggest barrier to physical exercise was psycho-motivational. This group consisted of things like I am lazy/unmotivated, I could not continue/ or would give up soon, I don’t have any company, I don’t have enough money for that, and I don’t have enough free time. The least important barrier was the psycho-personal group that consisted of, I don’t like exercise, I am to fat/skinny, and I am already active enough. Although these were the overall group answers the individual answers were a little different, the top answer to barriers was “ I am already active enough” falling in the psycho-personal group. The second most answer barrier was “ could not continue or would give up soon” this fell into the psycho-motivational group. The third popular barrier was “ I have no energy” which was in the physical group. In the conclusion is states that where they took these surveys the elderly has access to many programs, so they came to the c...

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...ely take this into account in my future because I want to be a geriatric nurse. I worked as a CNA for the last 2 summers, so I have seen physical activity be very low for the elderly. I feel there can be changes in order to help the elderly get moving a little more. First I would suggest that we could maybe make separate physical activity classes for those at different level and to maybe take more time individually with those who have problems that cant just get up and go on a mile walk. Next I feel we could make it more available and appealing. The elderly need the motivation to get up and get moving and even if that means holding classes that work on gardening or things to keep them going not just riding a bike or getting on a treadmill. I loved doing this paper because overall it will help me with my future career, and I love doing anything with the elderly.