The Investigation of the Effect of 8-Week Walking Football Activity on Life Satisfaction and Heart Rate Variability in Elderly Men

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the effect of walking football applied to elderly male sedentary individuals on life satisfaction and heart rate variability. 22 male volunteers whose physical activity level was determined by International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) were included to this study. Volunteers were divided into 11 exercise groups and 11 control groups by random sampling. While the control group had no activity participation, the exercise group performed a 20-minute warm-up, they played 60 minutes of walking football, and they performed a 10-minute cool down. This was done 2 days a week across an 8-week period. In the study, the Life Satisfaction Scale (LSS) was used in the exercise and control groups, Heart Rate (HR), Heart Rate Variability (HRV), heart-mind coherence, maximum heart-mind coherence measurements were applied with the Heartmath-Inner Balance device. “Paired t test” was used for analyzing pretest-posttest differences in variables while "Independent t test" was used for analyzing differences between the groups. Findings show that there was a significant difference between the exercise group’s HRV, heart-mind coherence, maximum heart-mind coherence, and pre-post test measurements of the LSS results (p<0.05), although there was no significant difference in the HR variable (p>0.05). No significant difference was found between the pre-test and post-tests mean comparison of all variables of the control group (p>0.05). According to the results, it can be concluded that walking football has a positive effect on life satisfaction, HRV, heart-mind coherence, and maximum heart-mind coherence in older adults.