Nutzen von sportlicher Aktivität im Erwachsenenalte

Fighting for Olympic dreams and life beyond: Olympian judokas on striving for glory and tackling post-athletic challenges

Objectives

This study explores the experiences of Olympian judokas, examining both their pursuit of excellence to compete at the Olympics and their subsequent transition out of judo. The aim is to offer empirical evidence regarding the challenges they face in realizing their Olympic dreams, and to shed light on the transitional challenges, available resources, and needs they face as they move toward post-athletic lives.

Methods

We conducted semi-structured interviews with eight Olympian judokas: five males and three females, all of whom have retired from competitive judo. These participants are from Portugal (n = 1), Republic of Korea (n = 2), and the United Kingdom (n = 5). We employed thematic analysis, which led to the identification of five main themes: (a) From Dreams to Olympic Reality, (b) Facing the Void: Loss of Goals and Identity, (c) The Crucial Role of Social Support, (d) Dual Aspects of Pre-Retirement Planning, and (e) The Double Edge of Organizational Support.

Findings

The findings highlight the significant challenges faced by Olympian judokas, including goal and identity loss post-retirement, and the need for comprehensive and accessible organizational support, particularly psychological assistance, to assist in their transition to post-athletic life.

Implications

The findings not only enhance our understanding of judokas' experiences during transition but also offer insights that could guide the development of tailored support programs. It is critical for sport governing bodies and practitioners to apply these insights in creating comprehensive and easily accessible support systems, which will ensure a smoother transition to post-athletic life for high-performance athletes.

Measurement properties of the German version of the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale for adults

The physical activity enjoyment scale (PACES) is a measurement instrument that is commonly used in monitoring and intervention research to assess how much people enjoy being physically active, as this has been related to physical activity adherence. However, while the measurement properties of PACES are well-researched in the English language, there is a gap of research in the German language, especially when looking at adults. Thus, the purpose of this work was to examine reliability, factorial validity, criterion-related validity, and measurement invariance across sex, age groups and time of the PACES for German-speaking adults. Data was obtained from the Motorik-Modul-Study (MoMo) in which 863 adults (53.5% female; mean age = 20.9 years) were examined. To investigate measurement invariance across age groups, data from 2,274 adolescents (50.5% female; mean age = 14.4 years) was obtained additionally. The study provided a nationwide representative sample for Germany. Results showed high internal consistency of PACES in adults (Cronbach's α = .94). Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the invariance of the measure across age groups, time, and sex. Criterion-related validity could be shown as the global factor significantly correlated with overall physical activity, physical activity in sports clubs, and leisure-time physical activity. The analyses of factorial structure indicated a method effect for positively and negatively worded items. Correlated uniqueness, latent method factor and a hybrid model were applied to analyze the method effect and results indicated that the method effect of positively worded items was predictive of physical activity independently of the global factor. Overall, it can be concluded that PACES is reliable, valid and invariant measure of physical activity enjoyment to be used in German-speaking adults. Further studies are warranted to examine the factorial structure of the PACES and the consequences of the method effect.

The relationship between physical activity, fitness, physical complaints and BMI in German adults - results of a longitudinal study

OBJECTIVES

This study's aims were to describe the development of physical activity, physical fitness (PF), subjective (physical complaints (PC)) and objective (Body mass index (BMI)) health measures and to examine the relationship between the development trajectories. In addition, the study also aimed to assess the influence of sociodemographic determinants (age, sex, socioeconomic status (SES)) in German adults over a period of 18 years.

METHODS

The longitudinal study population comprises of 721 men and women, aged 33-76 years over the study period. There was self-report of physical activity and PC and testing of physical fitness and BMI in each study year (1992, 1997, 2002 and 2010). Latent growth curve models were used to analyse the development.

RESULTS

Physical activity slightly increased while fitness, PC and BMI worsened over the course of 18 years. Sex, age and SES play important roles concerning physical activity, fitness and health. Several integrative associations could be detected between physical activity, fitness, PC and BMI as well as their trajectories. In particular, high initial levels of physical activity and fitness protect from high PC and BMI.The slope of physical activity was not significantly associated with slopes of fitness, PC and BMI. However, increase of fitness resulted in decrease of PC.

CONCLUSIONS

A general positive development regarding the amount of physical activity could be detected. However, if it is only an unsystematic increase of physical activity, this is not in itself enough to achieve health benefits. The strengthening of fitness should be focused when increasing physical activity, since only then a health benefit is possible.

Altersbilder und Gesundheitsverhalten

Zusammenfassung. Klassische Gesundheitsverhaltensmodelle berücksichtigen vor allem die drei zentralen psychologischen Einflussvariablen Risikowahrnehmung, wahrgenommener Nutzen und Selbstwirksamkeit. Bisher gibt es jedoch kaum Untersuchungen zum Einfluss von individuellen Vorstellungen und Einstellungen zum Alter(n). Die vorliegende Studie untersucht daher den Zusammenhang zwischen Alterseinstellungen und dem Gesundheitsverhalten. 2002 Personen zwischen 50 und 70 Jahren wurden in computer-assistierten Telefoninterviews befragt. Altersbilder wurden mittels Faktoren- und Clusteranalyse identifiziert; Einflüsse auf das Gesundheitsverhalten wurden mit einer multiplen Regressionsanalyse ermittelt. Es fanden sich drei unterschiedliche Altersbilder: die „fitten Leistungshungrigen” (n = 808), die „Klassischen” (n = 618) und die „unbekümmert Engagierten” (n = 576). Personen mit einer positiven stereotypen Wahrnehmung vom Alter wiesen ein signifikant besseres Gesundheitsverhalten auf als Personen, die sich mit dem „klassischen” Altersbild identifizierten. Die Vorstellung, selbst etwas für seine Gesundheit tun zu können, hatte neben sozioökonomischen Faktoren den größten Einfluss auf das Gesundheitsverhalten. Die Ergebnisse sprechen für die Notwendigkeit von „Gesundheitsbildung”. Dabei müssen besonders Personen, die sich mit dem „klassischen”, eher negativ getönten Altersbild identifizieren, gezielt von Präventionsprogrammen angesprochen werden.