Navid Lotfi¹, Yaghub Habibi², Saeid Rajabi², Ali Rajabi²

1Islamic Azad University, Ghorveh, Iran

Ageing is the accumulation of changes in a person over time [2]. Ageing in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change [9]. As the older population continues to increase in developed countries, maintaining a high level of quality of life into the elderly is becoming a growing public health concern and quality of life issues have gradually become more important in health care practice and research [11, 20]. Health related quality of life (HRQoL) refers to the physical, psychological, and social domains of health, seen as distinct areas that are influenced by a person’s experiences, beliefs, expectations and perceptions [24, 20]. There are several investigations dealing with the effects of exercise training on ageing and quality of life. Ghaseminezhad Dehkordi (2011) studied the comparison between athlete females and non-athlete females regarding to general health, mental health, and quality of life. She reported that the scores means of general health, mental health and quality of life were higher in athlete females than non-athlete females [5]. Salguero et al (2011) investigated the effects of physical activity on quality of life and symptoms of depression in community-dwelling and institutionalized older adults. They reported the positive effects of physical activity in both community-dwelling and institutionalized older adults [20]. Rejeski et al (2002) investigated the effects of weight loss and exercise on quality of life of obese older adults with knee osteoarthritis. They reported that the combined diet and exercise intervention had the most consistent, positive effect on HRQL compared with the control group [18]. White et al (2011) investigated the social cognitive influences on physical activity behavior in middle-aged and older adults. They reported that changes in self-efficacy were significantly related to residual changes in outcome expectations, disability limitations, goals, and physical activity and indirectly related to residual changes in physical activity through changes in physical and social outcome expectations [25]. Heyn et al (2004) studied the effects of exercise training on elderly persons with cognitive impairment and dementia. They reported that Exercise training increases fitness, physical function, cognitive function, and positive behavior in people with dementia and related cognitive impairments [8].

Over the past years, most researches have focused on lifelong but recently many researchers have focused their efforts on the quality of life in old age. Doing the effective actions on physical performance can decrease the stress and tension and improve the mental performance and quality of life. Positive effects of exercise has been considered on quality of life at the old age but in these researches, exercise has been considered on non- athletes subjects. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to comparative investigation of quality of life of athlete and non-athlete older adults.

Methods

Statistical population of this study is comprised of all athlete and non-athlete men (60-69 yr) of Ardabil city of IRAN. Athletes and non-athletes male (80 subjects for each group) were selected randomly and SF-36 questionnaires completed by them. Health related quality of life (HRQoL) was assessed using the SF-36 questionnaire. The Spanish version of the SF-36 is a validated instrument 20], comprised of 36 questions assessing 8 physical and mental health domains: physical function, role physical, bodily pain, general health perceptions, vitality, social functioning, role emotional and mental health. Domains scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better HRQoL. Domains are also weighted and summed to calculate physical and mental component summary scores, standardized to a mean of 50 [20].

Statistical analyses

All descriptive data are expressed as means ± SD. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to explain the differences between HRQol domains of athletes and non-athletes elderly subjects. A SPSS version 16 was used to statistical analysis.

HRQol domains of athletes and non-athletes elderly subjects are shown in Table 1. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that there were significant differences between athlete and non-
athlete subjects regarding to dependent variables. In other words, the scores means of general health, mental health and quality of life were higher in athlete subjects than non-athlete subjects.

Table 1. HRQol domains of athletes and non-athletes elderly subjects (Mean ± S.D)

The results of present study show that there are significant differences between two group (athlete and non-athletes) in HRQoL domains (physical function, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social function and mental health). In other words, this result shows that athletes have higher quality of life than non-athletes. This result is in agreement with other studies [10, 12, 20]. Also, this result is in agreement with Netz et al (2005) and Meyer et al (2003). They reported that exercise has positive effect on quality of life in older adults [14, 15]. Being physically active can help individuals maintain a healthy weight and reduce the risk of obesity. Physical activity is also associated with a lowered risk for developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis [5]. Weakness in joints and muscles causes instability and makes older adults more vulnerable to stressful situations involving motor reactions that progressively lead to atrophy, which in turn involve a higher degree of instability and the risk of lesions, thus creating a vicious circle that is difficult to solve, one of pain, immobility, atrophy, instability of joints and new bleeding episodes, all of which may even result in total invalidity [1, 7].

Researchers reported that measures of physical function in the elderly are related to feelings of well-being [6, 16, 23, 26]. Physical function is an important predictor of social support [23, 26].

Most researches have focused on physical aspects such as muscle strength of older adults and less attention has been paid to the psychological dimension. One of the most important non-physical benefits of exercise and physical activity on older adults is social dimension. During the exercise, person is forced to interact with other people who may have many common aspects with them. By this way, person feels that along with their friends are within a one group and is doing useful activity. Therefore, he or she feels less alone. This process is called socialization that is one of the aspects of quality of life. Another mental benefit of physical activity is improvement of confidence. Person who participates in exercise training feels that he/she have ability as well as others. Therefore, this person feels higher confidence. Good image of physical condition and ability to better deal with health problems are improved by exercise training in individuals [7]. Some evidence is available that active older adults have fewer depressive symptoms, but only for the young-old (60-75 yr) and not the oldest-old (+76 yr) [19]. This result is in agreement with our study. The mirror image of that observation is that older adults who feel good about their emotional functioning may exercise and be more active [13]. Furthermore, studied showed that inactive elders are physically and psychologically dependent on others people and this can reduce physical and mental function, social isolation, depression and low quality of life [17].

Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that the quality of life of elderly people with a history of the exercise training is higher than non-athletes. Also, physical activity improves quality of life of older adults. Thus, its recommend that having the regular exercise and physical activity during youth and especially in old age is very affordable, and elderly care centers can used these training for increase quality of life of elders in society.

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Навид Лотфи
navid_lotfi2008@yahoo.com
Мусульманский Университет Азад
ул. Боостан 7, №159, авеню Пасдаран, Гхорвех, Иран

Яагхуб Hабиби
navid_lotfi2008@yahoo.com
Университет Мохагхегх Ардабили
ул. Данесхгах, 56199-11367, Ардабил, Иран

Саеид Райаби
navid_lotfi2008@yahoo.com
Университет Мохагхегх Ардабили
ул. Данесхгах, 56199-11367, Ардабил, Иран

Али Райаби
navid_lotfi2008@yahoo.com
Университет Мохагхегх Ардабили
ул. Данесхгах, 56199-11367, Ардабил, Иран

Navid Lotfi
navid_lotfi2008@yahoo.com
Islamic Azad University
No 159,  7th Boostan St., Pasdaran Ave, Ghorveh, Iran

Yaghub Habibi
navid_lotfi2008@yahoo.com
University of Mohaghegh Ardabili
Daneshgah st., 56199-11367, Ardabil, Iran

Saeid Rajabi
navid_lotfi2008@yahoo.com
University of Mohaghegh Ardabili
Daneshgah st., 56199-11367, Ardabil, Iran

Ali Rajabi
navid_lotfi2008@yahoo.com
University of Mohaghegh Ardabili
Daneshgah st., 56199-11367, Ardabil, Iran