Project Materials

EXERCISE AS A BOOST FOR THE HEALTH PROMOTION OF THE ELDERLY

ABSTRACT

Everyone in society will eventually reach old age. The global old population has expanded dramatically, and extra steps are being made to ensure their well-being. Exercise is an important step in ensuring the health of the elderly. The goal of this quantitative study was to investigate how exercise improves elderly health in a multicultural context. The goals are to gain an overall understanding of older awareness and experiences with exercise, as well as to determine the role of nurses in providing exercise to the elderly. The research approach for the thesis was quantitative, with questionnaires delivered to the elderly in three countries: China (Ri Yuexing nursing home), Kenya (Eldoret and Cherangani nursing homes), and Finland (Purola elderly care). Manually, Microsoft Excel and the SPSS program were used as descriptive statistical techniques to analyse the data, and tables and graphs were created to display the results. The research questions were: What are the elderly’s experiences with exercise? How do the elderly engage in exercise? How do the elderly see the benefits of exercise on their health? What role do nurses have in promoting fitness among the elderly? The findings of this study revealed that the majority of the elderly understand the importance of exercise. Age is not a barrier to exercise because the elderly participate in a variety of exercises. It also demonstrated the active role of nurses and families in promoting fitness among the elderly. Exercise improves the quality of life for the elderly by helping to keep them strong, active, and healthy.

Chapter one

INTRODUCTION

Given that the bulk of the population is ageing, there is an urgent need for geriatric health promotion in order for them to carry out day-to-day chores independently.

For years, the elderly have been encouraged to engage in exercise as the most common and successful strategy to improve their health.

However, elderly people with multiple illnesses have limited activities due to their overall health. By the age of 75, approximately one in every three males and one in every two women did not engage in any physical activity (Harber 2007, 139).

Regardless of physical activity level, older persons who were more satisfied with their exercise had greater mental and psychological health.

Although older persons with poor exercise fulfilment may improve their physical capacities, their emotional and psychological health differed significantly from that of older adults with medium or high exercise fulfilment after exercise intervention.

These findings give early evidence that exercise can provide sufficient fulfilment while both promoting and improving older individuals’ health.

Furthermore, administering sufficient exercise fulfilment assessments may help measure the benefits of intervention programs in the healthcare system. (Sakurai et al., 2012, p. 743-54).

According to the writers of this thesis, exercise has been undervalued or even ignored in real-world application, resulting in physical deterioration in patients. The authors of this thesis experienced a variety of examples during their previous practical experiences.

In health care, it is considered that health is mostly maintained by nutrition and medications. For example, sleeping problems are more common among the elderly, and they undoubtedly influence individuals and their families.

Many older individuals take a variety of medicines to treat this condition, including sleeping pills, many of which have negative effects.

The findings of Fábio’s current study show that senior patients who underwent persistent moderate training had improved sleep quality. (Fábio et al., 2011, pp. 113–118).

The objective of this research is to explore ways in which exercise serves as a boost to geriatric health promotion. The increasing number of individuals living longer lives has sparked global interest in improving quality of life and health-related quality of life in old age (Bowling 2005).

The goal of this study was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the elderly’s awareness and experiences with exercise in a multicultural setting. The goal was also to determine the function of nurses in the provision of exercise. This study was conducted to map the methods of conducting exercise for the elderly population.

The authors aimed to gather additional evidence that exercise enhances elderly health in a variety of ways, including physical, psychological, cognitive, and sociological, and to gain more positive influences of exercise on elderly people so that they understand its relevance as a strategy of health promotion.

It also contains proper methods and recommendations for nurses to use in promoting geriatric health through exercise.

The theoretical component of this study focusses on ageing, the forms and effects of exercise on the elderly, older health challenges, and the role of nurses in promoting exercise on the elderly.

The empirical research was conducted in Finland (Purola elderly home), Kenya (Eldoret and Cherangani nursing homes), and China (Ri Yuexing elderly home).

This research is intended for use by other researchers, student nurses, paramedics, elderly family members, and any possible readers.