Health resources, ageing and physical activity: a study of physically active women aged 69–75 years. Issue 2 (15th March 2018) - Ericson, Helena
Abstract: Most studies on issues relating to ageing, physical activity and health are based on an understanding of what causes illness, rather than what promotes health. The health benefits of physical activity relate to questions about how to avoid physical inactivity and overcoming barriers to participating in physical activity, rather than why older people continue to be physically active. The aim of this study was to explore health resources in relation to physical activity, especially resistance training, that physically active women between the ages of 69–75 years characterise as important for the maintenance of health. In order to investigate these health resources, the study drew on salutogenic theory and the concept of sense of coherence. The analysed data came from interviews with 14 physically active Swedish women aged 69–75 years who had previously taken part in a resistance training intervention, but who also had continued to engage in physical activity and resistance training when the intervention ended. We identified seven health resources, social relations and care, positive energy, self - worth, capability in and about physical activity, the habit of exercising, identity as an exercising person and womanhood related to physical activity, in this case resistance training, that physically active women aged between 69 and 75 years characterised as important for maintaining their health. In conclusion, physical activity carried out in a stable group of peers provided a meaningful, comprehensible and manageable way for these older women to engage in the on-going process of maintaining health.