O perfil dos ingressantes de um programa de educação física para idosos e os motivos da adesão inicial The profile of the initiators in a physical education program for elderly and the reasons for the initial adherence

Numa sociedade em pleno envelhecimento, a Educação Física deverá desempenhar um importante papel. A cada ano, cresce a procura por programas supervisionados, como é o caso do Programa Autonomia para Atividade Física do Idoso - PAAF. Conhecer o idoso é fundamental para orientar as ações pedagógicas e atender suas expectativas. Assim, este trabalho destina-se a conhecer o perfil sócio-demográfico, a atividade física pregressa, verificar a saúde percebida e entender quais foram os motivos de adesão ao programa. Participaram desse estudo 54 pessoas (14 homens e 40 mulheres), com idade acima de 60 anos (66,45 ± 5,176 anos de idade), que ingressaram no PAAF-2002. Foram utilizados questionários, em que foram consideradas as seguintes variáveis: gênero, idade, nível de escolaridade, estado civil; saúde percebida do ingressante; a atividade profissional e a atividade física pregressa e o nível sócio-econômico. Para verificar os motivos da adesão inicial utilizamos tabela tipo Liekert e aplicamos o Índice de Consistência Interna de Liekert. Utilizamos o Coeficiente de Concordância de Kendall (W) e o Teste de Friedman (Xr²), com nível de significância (p = 0,05). A maioria dos alunos tinha entre 60 a 70 anos de idade, pertencia aos níveis sócio-econômico A e B e possuía alto nível de escolaridade. A maioria tinha pelo menos uma doença, porém, a saúde percebida era positiva. Os motivos de adesão relatados foram: aprender fazer exercícios físicos, melhorar condicionamento físico e prevenir problemas de saúde. Já, ocupar o tempo livre e fazer amigos foram motivos considerados menos importantes..<br>In an aging society, Physical Education has paramount importance. Each year the search for supervised programs expends, as in the Elderly Physical Activity Autonomy Program (PAAP) case. Understanding the elderly is important to orientate the pedagogic actions and to attend participants' needs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the social demographic characteristics, previous physical activity, perceived health of the elderly and to understand the reasons for their adherence in the PAAP. Fifty four individuals (14 male and 40 female, 66,45 ± 5,176 years old) that went into PAAP took part in this study. Questionnaires were used with the following variables: type, age, education level, marital status, perceived health, previous professional activity, previous physical activity and social-economic level. To check the reasons for the first adherence, we used the Liekert table and the Liekert Internal Consistence Index. To confirm the results, we applied the Kendall Concordance Coefficient (W) and the Friedman test (Xr²), adopting p = 0.05 as the significance level. The majority of the participants belonged to the A and B socio-economical classes and had a bachelor's degree. The majority had, at least, one disease, but the perceived health was positive. The adherence reasons reported were: learn how to perform physical exercises, to improve physical condition and to prevent health problems. Further, take up free time and to make friends were considered the less important reasons

Social support for physical activity—role of Facebook with and without structured intervention

Despite their widespread use and extensive technical features, little is known about how to use online social networking sites to increase physical activity. This study aims to examine Facebook engagement among participants in the online social networking arm of a randomized controlled physical activity promotion trial (n = 67). Facebook communications were double coded and analyzed using ATLAS.ti. Regression procedures were used to determine predictors of Facebook use and associations between types of use and changes in perceived social support and physical activity. Changes in perceived social support and physical activity were more strongly associated with participants’ individual Facebook use than use of the Facebook intervention group. The way social media sites are used in intervention design could have an impact on their effects. Including existing friends in interventions and using applications that incorporate intervention activities into a more naturalistic use of Facebook may improve the efficacy of future interventions