Public Opinion of Physical Activity in the Later Years of the Life Cycle

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss the questions related to sport and physical activity in the later years of life from a societal perspective. It was hypothesized that: 1) in Hungary the role of physical activity in the life-style of retired persons has been recognized neither at the institutional nor at the personal level and that 2) not the actual age but rather age-related social norms and role models are the factors which define leisure behavior, including desocialization out of sport roles. The first part of this paper presents data collected by document analyses from statistical year-books, reports and autobiographies. The second part is based on a cross cultural study carried out in five cities: Budapest, Havana, Prague, Tallin, Warsaw. The sample was selected randomly, (N = 4000) the data was collected using questionnaires which mainly contained multiple choice and open-ended questions. The findings prove that — depending on age cohort, sex, social background, nationality — actual age is only partially to be considered as the indicator of socially acceptable and age- appropriate role behavior. However, sport and physical activity in old age are not encouraged and for the elderly, there is no opportunity to pursue physically active roles. Sports scientists working with age-related phenomena stress the fact that one "cannot ignore the many social, historical, cultural, environmental, political, and economic factors that can influence physical activity involvement patterns or potential in the middle and later years of life." (McPherson 1988). The present paper attempts to investigate one of those factors: public opinion on bodily decline in the later years of life and physical activity of elderly people.