Beneficios en la calidad de vida de mujeres entre los 50y los 81 años de edad al participar en un programa derecreación física grupal

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to delve deeper into the individual and collective experience of women between the ages of fifty (50) and eighty-one (81) years old, focusing on the perception of changes in their quality of life during their participation in a physical recreational group program. This work was oriented by a fusion of approaches in which the qualitative was the predominant. There were twentyseven (27) women between the ages of fifty (50) and eighty-one (81) years old who voluntarily participated and integrated into the group “Manos de Oro” in the Copan neighborhood, located in San Ramon, Alajuela. A physical recreational group activity program was put into practice for five weeks, in which fifteen sessions of seventy-five minutes each were developed (three sessions per week). To measure the different quality lifestyle domains, the Spanish version of the Health Questionnaire SF-36 was used. Also, personal opinions and focus group interviews were taken into account during each session. The results indicated that the physical recreational group program helped to enhance the perception of the participants’ changes in their quality of life in respect to the eight dimensions measured with the Health Questionnaire SF-36. Also, evidence of how the improvement of one variable can influence changes in another variable were found. In regards to personal experiences and the focal interviews, the participants perceived their quality of life as: being free and independent, having good health and good family rapport. They also claimed to have a good quality of life, for reasons such as having stability and coexistence, being able to exercise and feeling good. Likewise, they perceived benefits from physical recreation activities in which they participated, such as feeling better, being more functional, being flexible and feeling less bodily pain. The study concluded that the physical recreation program produced significant improvements in the subjective perception of changes in the quality of life of participants as well as a series of self-perceived benefits, which can be a stimulus to adopt physical recreation as part of their leisure activities and lifestyle.