6.6 R ED DE SANEAMIENTO R ECOGIDA DE AGUA RESIDUAL Y PLUVIAL

There was a significant association between older age and lower physical activity levels. This is not an unexpected finding because with increasing age comes lower physical capacity and increasing barriers to activity through illness and injury. However, Hebert (1997) makes the point that functional decline (which in an autonomous population over 75 he reported to be about 12 percent per year) is a dynamic process amenable to

improvement through intervention. Hebert notes further “that the traditional defeatist attitude toward this condition is unjustified” [pp. 1041]. Hebert’s observation that functional decline is not inevitable is supported by findings reported in the present thesis that 67 percent of those over the age of 80 were exceeding minimum physical activity level guidelines, with the mean score for this age group equivalent in activity level to approximately 8 hours walking per week.

Significant positive associations were observed between physical activity levels and interest, importance and utility of physical activity albeit with small effect sizes. This too appears to be a self-evident finding, that being interested in activity, thinking that it was important and finding it useful would result in higher levels of physical activity. What is interesting is that Day Therapy attendees, the least physically active group, recorded the greatest percentage of positive scores on the interest, importance and utility scales. This suggests that while this group was experiencing a dwindling capacity to be active that this decline was possibly leading to a greater appreciation of what they were in the process of losing.

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There was also a significant positive association between physical activity levels and the cost of being active. This seemingly counterintuitive finding came from the subjective scale item cost which was made up of two questions asking about the cost of being active in terms of time and money; individually higher costs in both time and money were significantly associated with higher levels of physical activity. A potential reason for this finding is that a respondent with a higher level of physical activity would likely spend more time in activities contributing to the overall cost scale. For Township A respondents, who reported

significantly higher costs associated with being active than respondents at the other sites, later interview analysis revealed that this time was spent in the garden, walking for health and transport, and participating in organised activities such as bowls and golf. Further, participation in organised activities usually incurs a monetary cost through affiliations with clubs such as the golf club, indoor and outdoor bowls, health centre activities and swimming pool entry. The more active a respondent in these organised pursuits the higher the cost they would incur and the more aware they would be of the costs involved.

There was a negative association between physical activity level and amount of perceived effort required to be active. This affective variable had two parts, how much effort does it take and how difficult is it for you to participate in regular physical activity? The more effort required and the higher the difficulty the lower the likelihood of engaging in physical activity. Greater effort was also significantly associated with lower interest in and perceived utility of physical activity. Further, respondents in the lowest physical activity quartile (sedentary respondents) reported that physical activity was less useful and required significantly greater effort than respondents in other quartiles. There was also a trend towards these respondents having significantly less interest in physical activity although they reported that for them physical activity was as important as respondents in other quartiles. For sedentary older people, this perceived effort represents a significant barrier to increasing their levels of physical activity and appears to influence the way they think about activity, although they still report a belief in its importance. Perceptions of effort and utility are amenable to change and

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several interview participants in this study described strategies they used to overcome barriers to physical activity. It is likely that older people in this lowest quartile have physical restrictions that would need to be taken into consideration when designing activities. Gentle activity that emphasised enjoyment and participation may help to overcome negative

perceptions of physical activity. Later in this discussion theories and therapies are discussed which may assist older people to move past these negative perceptions and engage in physical activity. Research in an educational setting has found that increasing the perceived value of a course leads to deeper learning strategies and greater engagement by students (Floyd, Harrington, & Santiago, 2009). Similarly, and based on the findings presented here, it could be hypothesised that for older adults increasing the perceived utility of physical activity could lead to greater engagement.

Having a number of active family members was significantly associated with higher activity levels but having active friends was not. There are two possibilities here; that active older people encouraged their offspring to be active when young and they have continued to follow their parents’ example, or that family members who are active might be encouraging their older relatives to continue their engagement in activities. When completing the survey face to face many participants commented that the size of their friendship groups were declining markedly due to death and this focusing on a dwindling friendship group may also help to explain why there was no significant association found between the number of active friends and physical activity levels.

In sum, although increasing age was associated with a decline in physical activity levels in this sample of older Tasmanians their interest in activity, its importance and utility to them remained high and was positively associated with activity levels. Being more active appeared to incur more monetary costs and a greater investment of time, while a higher perceived effort required to be active was associated with both lower physical activity levels and lower perceived utility of that physical activity. Having a greater number of active family

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members also appeared to support higher levels of activity although the mechanisms of this association were unclear.