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The role of physical activity in health preservation of the elderly people
Section 10. Sociology
Arstangaliyeva Zulfiya Zhmagildievna, Saratov State Medical University n. a. V. I. Razumovsky, post-graduate student of department of philosophy, humanities and psychology E-mail: zulfija_arstangalieva@mail.ru Andriyanova Elena Andreyevna, head of department of philosophy, humanities and psychology Kuznetsova Mariya Nikolayevna, associate professor of department of philosophy, humanities and psychology Gorshenina Valeriya Ivanovna, associate professor of department of philosophy, humanities and psychology
The role of physical activity in health preservation of the elderly people
Abstract: The article is concerned with the role of physical activity of elderly people in the context of health preservation practices. It demonstrates the interrelation of systemic health level worsening of the elderly population with health care organization and life style changes. The most common physical activity types among the elderly people are morning gymnastics, walking, dosed running, swimming. It is pointed out that the increase of physical and social activity level of the representatives of the elderly generation is possible in the shift of the accent onto prophylaxis of diseases and gerontology prophylaxis on the whole, in case the mentality, precepts and personal opinions concerning health are changed.
Keywords: elderly people, health preservation, physical activity.
Numerous investigations aimed to study life prolongation, health demands of the elderly age group representatives, as well as peculiarities of interaction with the health care system verify the urgency of elderly people’s health preservation problem for modern social sciences and for medical sociology in particular.
A number of Russian researches deal with the problem of health preservation and improvement and their interrelation with life style in the elderly age, such as I. Zhuravleva, A. Izutkin, Yu. Lisitsin, N. Sedova, E. Chernyshkova, D. Shilova and some others. Investigations concerning elderly people’s health through the prism of social inequality are reported in the works of M. Elutina, L. Panova, N. Rusinova, etc. Problems of medical and recreation-sanitary service of a social-gerontological group are discussed in the works of O. Murzina, D. Solodukhina, N. Zavjalova and others. However, the study of questions focused on the elderly population’s health preservation within medical sociology, according
to A. Reshetnikov, appears to be ofprimary prevalence as far as possibilities of integration of various approaches to the investigation of this complex phenomenon are concerned. Besides, the contemporary stage of the society development necessitates to shift the accents from disease to health, from treatment to prophylaxis, from intervention to observation, from a patient to a human being, from therapy to care, from a medical institution to the society [13]. In the context of elderly people’s health preservation the significance of this problematic is obvious: elderly people belong to the group of the highest risk.
Some studies carried out within the previous 10 years verify not only the decrease of certain health level indices of the elderly people but a systemic worsening associated both with health protection organization and life style changes in this social-demographic group. According to the UNO data, the main cause of health worsening in Russian people is the crisis in the health care system which is based primarily on stationary forms
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of treatment, not on ambulatory and prophylactic methods and healthy life style propaganda [1, 11]. Now the proportion of elderly people in Russia constitute more than 20 %, and the main task of the state is to preserve and improve the health of the elderly population, as well as to raise life activity prolongation and to form motivation for healthy life style maintenance [8].
According to the WHO data, the leading positions among elderly people’s diseases belong to the disorders of the cardio-vascular system, brain and diabetes. The morbidity rate decrease seems to be possible in case the elderly people themselves prolong their motor activity and self-service, the necessary factor being continuous monitoring of living conditions and medical service of the elderly age group representatives, as well as improvement of prophylactic measures among the people of young and middle age [17].
So, at the individual level practices of health preservation in the elderly age are those forms of activity which contribute to preservation and strengthening of a human being’s health. The choice is determined by the cultural level of the person, by his gained knowledge and life precepts, a certain complex ofbehavioral norms concerning health maintenance. The most effective practice is to follow an optimal motor regimen regarding gender, age and physiological peculiarities.
Positive effects of motor activity on the human organism have long been studied and proved. According to N. Amosov [3], the author of a systemic approach to health including that in the gerontological group of patients, muscular activity trains all the organs, thus increasing cardiac and vascular output, their strength and capacities. The respiratory system supplies gas exchange increase, respiratory muscles and air passages get strengthened. The digestive organs are activated while primary processing of the food and receiving the impulses for peristalsis due to the abdominal press tension. The positive result is substantiated by combining physical exercises and a regular (vegetable) diet.
So, the motor activity is one of the factors contributing to the prophylaxis of various diseases in the elderly and old age. Active life style reduces the risk of coronary diseases and obesity by 15-20 % on an average. The coronary disease manifestations are most commonly observed in people with a low motor activity, much more rarely — in people with a moderate activity and very rarely — in persons with a high motor activity. Besides, from the viewpoint of M. Savenko, regular physical exercises appear to make a positive effect on the elderly people’s psychics raising the emotional state and mood
levels and contributing to depression overcoming; they may also decrease the risk of senile dementia development [14]. According to the reported data of elderly women’s functional condition investigation, conducted by I. Vlasova, dosed physical exercises in the elderly age have the property of gerontological protection [5].
Prophylactic measures undertaken at the age above 40 contribute to a more favourable ageing process, prevent a great number of sufferings and debility. It is more difficult for an elderly person with dystrophic changes in the organism to start doing physical exercises or other types of therapeutic physical training, while preservation of habits acquired through years of life is experienced much easier and it allows to maintain a good physical form of the organism [4, 16].
Physical activity as the basic means of personal physical, psychic and social health maintenance, improving life quality and not depending on dietary regimen and habits is the primary condition of healthy life style. WHO recommends to consider physical activity of moderate intensity and duration for 30 minutes a day with regular loads 5 days a week to be optimal [6].
The most common forms of physical activity among elderly people are as follows: morning exercises, walking, running, swimming. However, according to the data obtained by E. Kachan, K. Ivko, S. Trofimova, Finnish walking becomes today quite a popular type of physical activity [7]. It should be pointed out that purposeful dosed physical loads give a positive effect in elderly people’s health maintenance when these loads are adequate to the somatic status and rational in reference to the health. Besides, as M. Miller states, realized and purposeful physical activity has not only health-strengthening but also health-forming character, “attracting" other elements of personal healthy life style, such as giving up smoking and abnormal use of alcohol, adoption of a healthy diet, rational organization of work and rest regimen [9].
A sufficient level of physical activity makes it possible to reduce the risk of downfalls and traumas. There is the evidence that those people who are actively and regularly engaged in sport suffer from fatigue 1.5 times less; fall ill with gastro-intestinal diseases 3.5 times more rarely; they suffer from hypertension — 2 times, from chronic tonsillitis — 3.5 times, and grippe — 2 times more rarely [12].
It has been proved that the proportion in the group of people who regularly do physical exercises and who have managed to preserve their working capability and continue their professional activity, accounts for 23.8 %, while in the group of people who do not maintain their physical form it is only 2.1 %. These findings testify the fact that
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The role of physical activity in health preservation of the elderly people
physical activity in everyday people’s life intensifies and improves the reservoir capabilities of the organism. Individuals who are oriented to maintain and strengthen their health, where optimal physical activity is an important element, preserve their working capability and positive active life style motivation for quite a longer time [2, 15].
Thus, application of physical training system activates the sense of youth, plays an important role in life tonus elevation and maintenance of health and working capabilities of the elderly people. Physical activity in the individuals of this age group must have predominantly sanitary and therapeutic-prophylactic character. It is necessary to develop a complex, integrating
and intersectoral approach with the accent on the strategies in the sphere of health maintenance at the level of all elderly people which would support the strategies at the level of an individual human being. Besides, elevation of physical and social activity level of the elderly generation representatives may in fact be possible only in case the accent is focused on prophylaxis of diseases and gerontology prophylaxis in general, on national protectorate programs concerning health and social life aspects of the elderly generation, as well as in case the level of health and physical condition of the population elevates and the mentality, precepts and viewpoints onto the value of health really change.
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