CARDIO FITNESS FOR COLLEGE BOUND ATHLETE
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Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who have studied the effects of exercise on aging point to new findings that may inspire people to get up, get out and get moving on a more regular basis.
The research team, led by kinesiology professor Edward McAuley, found that previously sedentary seniors citizens who incorporated exercise into their lifestyles not only improved physical function, but experienced psychological benefits as well.
“The implications of our work are that not only will physical activity potentially add years to your life as you get older, but the quality of those years is most likely to be improved by regular physical activity,” McAuley said.
Results of the study appear in an article titled “Physical Activity Enhances Long-Term Quality of Life in Older Adults: Efficacy, Esteem and Affective Influences,” published in the current issue of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Co-authors with McAuley on the report are UI kinesiology professor Robert W. Motl; psychology professor Ed Diener; and current and former graduate students Steriani Elavsky, Liang Hu, Gerald J. Jerome, James F. Konopack and David X. Marquez.
The University of Illinois research indicated positive psychosocial and cognitive outcomes — in effect, significant quality-of-life gains — among participants who remained physically active long after they began an initial randomized, six-month exercise trial consisting of stretching/toning exercises and walking. Results were taken from a battery of assessments and surveys and administered at one and five year intervals following the initial exercise regimen.
McCauley said the study — which assessed physical self-esteem, quality of life, physical activity levels, self-efficacy and affect in a large sample (174) of adults over age 65 — is believed to be the only one to date that examines the relationship between physical activity and quality of life over such a long period of time.
“Self-efficacy,” McAuley noted, can be defined as “the belief, or self-confidence, in one’s capacity to successfully carry out a task”; while “affect” refers to reported levels of happiness or contentment.
The researchers found that participants who continued to be physically active a year after baseline responses were recorded — through engagement in leisure, occupational or home activities, such as house-cleaning or gardening — were “fitter, had higher levels of self-efficacy and physical self-esteem, expressed more positive affect and reported, in turn, a better quality of life.”
Increased physical activity over time, as indicated by results of the five year follow-up, “was associated with greater improvements in self-esteem and affect. Enhanced affect was, in turn, associated with increases in satisfaction with life over time,” the researchers noted.
In the first instance we have shown that exercise and physical activity have a long-term effect on important aspects of psychosocial functioning because of the fact that exercise can influence our quality of life, self-esteem and self-efficacy.
Secondly, there is a growing awareness of the strong relationship between quality of life and physical activity, especially when people get older. However, much of this work seems to indicate that there is a direct link between the two. Our work takes this approach, and is well supported by the data, that exercise and physical activity improve our quality of life.
A related, 2-year study conducted in McAuley’s laboratory examined the roles played by health status, physical activity and self-efficacy in determining “global quality of life,” or satisfaction with life among the older generation. The research focused on a different sample of two hundred and forty nine older white and black women. Results from this study will be published in an article titled “Physical Activity and Quality of Life in Older Adults: Influence of Health Status and Self-Efficacy” in a forthcoming edition of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
In other words, he said, there is a trend among adults with lower self-expectations of their physical abilities to give up — to reduce the number of activities they engage in as well as the degree of effort they expend toward that end.