Impact of physical activity on perceived stress and life satisfaction of elderly people

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of physical activity on the level of stress and life satisfaction of elderly people. The subjects were 187 members of the Open University of Third Age of a city in the northwestern Paraná State. As instruments it was used the Perceived Stress Scale and the Scale for Assessing Attitudes Toward Aging. For data analysis, it was applied Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney, Spearman correlation, Chi-square and Poisson regression (p < 0.05). The results showed that physically active individuals had higher life satisfaction, and lower level of stress and feelings of loss in comparison to non-practitioners (p = 0.001); the physical activity was associated with all variables (p = 0.001), indicating the impact of the physical activity on stress and life satisfaction. In conclusion, the physical activity is a key element to perceive the stress and the life satisfaction, contributing to a healthy aging.