Health-Promoting Benefits of Exercise Awareness and Exercise Behavior in Older Adults: An Exercise Program Intervention

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to use the aerobic exercise program as an intervention to understand exercise awareness and exercise behavior in older adults and to predict health promotion. This study recruited 120 healthy older adults (60 males and 60 females) over 65 years old (average male age 72.15 ± 3.53 years, female average age 71.64 ± 3.97 years), males and females were randomly assigned to the experimental group, and the control group (30 males, 30 females). The experimental group underwent an “aerobic fitness exercise program” for 8 week, while the control group underwent 8 weeks of daily life. All participants were first surveyed on background variables. At the beginning and end of the experiment, the experimental group and control group of males and females had to undergo the senior fitness test (SFT), the Elderly Exercise Awareness and Exercise Behavior Scale (EAEBI) and the Elderly Health Promotion Inventory (HPI) survey. The results of the study showed that male Cohen’s d = .326, and female Cohen’s d = .371, both showed small effects; related power analysis male effect size (es) = 0.2, female effect size (es) = 0.1, showed that the participants were homogeneous, the mean ages of males and females of the Q-Q plot showed normality. The SFT analysis of the experimental group and the control group found that Int-2, Int-1, Con-1, and Con-2 were significantly different between males and females. The EAEBI scale analysis found that the male experimental group had the largest difference in awareness effect ( F = 9.47, p < .05), and the female experimental group had the largest difference in exercise cognition ( F = 11.35, p < .05). HPI scale analysis found that the male experimental group had the largest difference in physical activity ( F = 14.83, p < .05), and the female experimental group had the largest difference in social support ( F = 13.19, p < .05). Finally, the intervention measures of aerobic fitness exercise program could positively affect the exercise perceived and exercise behavior of the older adults, and had positive effects on health promotion. This study has practical significance for an aging society. Promoting health through regular exercise can also reduce medical resources, which is the subject of effective preventive medicine.