A pilot study on the effects of the 6-week recreational activities program on physical fitness of elderly people in Maeka subdistrict, Phayao province

Kritsada Tampradit

Schoolof Science, University of Phayao, Phayao, Thailand

Pattawan Lapo

Schoolof Science, University of Phayao, Phayao, Thailand

Apiruck Wonghempoom

Schoolof Science, University of Phayao, Phayao, Thailand

Prachya Wangtrakul

Schoolof Science, University of Phayao, Phayao, Thailand

Keywords: Older people, Physical activities, Recreation, Well-being

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 6 -week recreational activities program on elderly people physical fitness and to compare their physical fitness with standard physical fitness testing criteria before and after participating in the 6-week recreational activities program, The recreational activity program was conducted 3 days per week for 60 min per day. The participants were 20 healthy older women, who volunteered to participate in this study by using the purposive sampling method. The participants were divided into 2 groups (60-64 years old group and 65-69 years old group). The health-related physical fitness of people age between 60-69 years old test developed by Department of Physical Education was used as protocols in this study. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and a paired-sample t-test were used to analyze the data at the significance level of 0.05. The results showed that the physical fitness testing scores of participants increased significantly after engaging in the program, with a statistically significant at the .05 level before and after the program. Therefore, it was concluded that the 6-week recreational activities program could improve health-related physical fitness in elderly people.

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