STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP OF LEISURE SPORTS TOURISM WITH THE HEALTH OF THE ELDERLY

ESTUDO SOBRE A RELAÇÃO DO TURISMO ESPORTIVO DE LAZER COM A SAÚDE DO IDOSO

ESTUDIO SOBRE LA RELACIÓN DE TURISMO DEPORTIVO DE OCIO CON LA SALUD DEL ANCIANO

ABSTRACT

Objective:

To explore the influence of leisure sports tourism activities on the health of elderly tourists.

Methods:

Through investigating the leisure sports tourism activities of some elderly tourists who participated in travel agencies, the health status and quality of life of elderly tourists who participated in leisure sports tourism activities for a long time (exercising group) were compared with those who did not or occasionally participated in physical exercise (non-exercising group), to understand the influence of leisure sports tourism activities on the health of elderly tourists.

Results:

Regarding the attitude of participating in sports leisure tourism activities, the survey results show that the elderly tourists reached a basic consensus about participating in sports leisure tourism activities. Different types of landscapes have significant differences in improving tourists’ anxiety. The proportion of “very satisfied” in the exercise group was significantly higher than that in the non-exercise group. The duration of the trip has a significant impact on improving tourists’ anxiety.

Conclusion:

We should strengthen the advertising of leisure sport tourism activities, let more elderly tourists participate in leisure sport tourism activities, strengthen the behavioral guidance of elderly tourists in leisure sport tourism activities, and help them improve their health. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies - investigation of treatment results.

Keywords:
Leisure Activities; Health of the Elderly; Tourism

RESUMO

Objetivo:

Explorar a influência das atividades de turismo esportivo de lazer sobre a saúde dos turistas idosos.

Método:

Através da investigação das atividades de turismo de lazer esportivo de alguns turistas idosos que participaram de agências de viagem, o estado de saúde e qualidade de vida dos turistas idosos que participaram de atividades de turismo de lazer esportivo por um longo tempo (grupo de exercícios) foram comparados com aqueles que não participaram ou ocasionalmente participaram de exercícios físicos (grupo não praticante), para entender a influência das atividades de turismo de lazer esportivo sobre a saúde dos turistas idosos.

Resultados:

Quanto à atitude de participação em atividades de turismo de lazer esportivo, os resultados da pesquisa mostram que os turistas idosos chegaram a um consenso básico sobre a participação em atividades de turismo de lazer esportivo. Diferentes tipos de paisagens têm diferenças significativas para melhorar a ansiedade dos turistas. A proporção de “muito satisfeitos” no grupo de exercícios foi significativamente maior do que a do grupo de não-exercícios. A duração da viagem tem um impacto significativo na melhoria da ansiedade dos turistas.

Conclusão:

Devemos fortalecer a propaganda das atividades de turismo esportivo de lazer, deixar que mais turistas idosos participem das atividades de turismo esportivo de lazer, fortalecer a orientação do comportamento dos turistas idosos em atividades de turismo esportivo de lazer, e ajudá-los a melhorar sua saúde. Nível de evidência II; Estudos terapêuticos – investigação de resultados de tratamento.

Descritores:
Atividades de lazer; Saúde do Idoso; Turismo

RESUMEN

Objetivo:

Explorar la influencia de las actividades de turismo deportivo de ocio en la salud de los turistas de edad avanzada.

Método:

Mediante la investigación de las actividades de turismo deportivo de ocio de algunos turistas de la tercera edad que participaron en agencias de viajes, se comparó el estado de salud y la calidad de vida de los turistas de la tercera edad que participaron en actividades de turismo deportivo de ocio durante un largo periodo (grupo ejercitante) con los que no hicieron ejercicio físico o lo hicieron ocasionalmente (grupo no ejercitante), para comprender la influencia de las actividades de turismo deportivo de ocio en la salud de los turistas de la tercera edad.

Resultados:

En cuanto a la actitud de participación en actividades de turismo de ocio deportivo, los resultados de la investigación muestran que los turistas de edad avanzada llegaron a un consenso básico sobre la participación en actividades de turismo de ocio deportivo. Los distintos tipos de paisajes presentan diferencias significativas a la hora de mejorar la ansiedad de los turistas. La proporción de “muy satisfechos” en el grupo de ejercicio fue significativamente mayor que en el grupo de no ejercicio. La duración del viaje tiene un impacto significativo en la mejora de la ansiedad de los turistas.

Conclusión:

Debemos reforzar la publicidad de las actividades de turismo deportivo de ocio, dejar que más turistas de edad avanzada participen en las actividades de turismo deportivo de ocio, reforzar la orientación del comportamiento de los turistas de edad avanzada en las actividades de turismo deportivo de ocio y ayudarles a mejorar su salud. Nivel de evidencia II; Estudios terapéuticos – investigación de resultados de tratamiento.

Descriptores:
Actividades Recreativas; Salud del Anciano; Turismo

INTRODUCTION

With the continuous development of society, the pressure of people’s life is getting bigger and bigger, which has caused physical and mental health problems to a certain extent. Leisure is an important part of people’s life activities, an important symbol of social civilization, a necessary condition for human beings to develop themselves in an all-round way, a “material” guarantee for modern people to move towards freedom, and the pursuit of human living conditions.¹ It regulates body and mind through the consumption of time and energy, and obtains emotional experience in it. Sports leisure tourism is an effective way to relieve stress, adjust mood and improve physical fitness, and it is the only way to improve people’s living standard and happiness.²,³

As a brand-new way of life in modern society, tourism can relieve people’s nervousness and play an increasingly important role in the treatment of psychological disorders. Nowadays, tourism forms have evolved from traditional sightseeing and cultural tourism to healthy tourism, and tourism activities have paid attention to people’s health and all-round harmonious development from simply paying attention to economic benefits to taking into account social and ecological benefits, which is undoubtedly the performance of tourism consistent with the times.⁴ Improving physical and mental health and quality of life through effective sports, leisure and tourism activities has certain practical significance for prolonging the life of elderly tourists and solving the increasingly serious aging problem.

OBJECTS AND METHODS

Object

The research object of this paper is mainly to choose and determine the tourists who sign up for a travel agency. First of all, the tourists who travel through the travel agency are inquired about their travel motives, and the tourists who mainly aim at “sports and leisure tourism activities” are screened out.

Exclusion criteria: (1) operation history in the past six months; (2) History of mental illness, family history of dementia, depression or anxiety; (3) Have a long history of taking psychoactive drugs; (4) History of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, brain trauma, etc., such as stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, congenital heart disease, severe hypoglycemia, ketosis coma;⁵ There are other serious physical diseases, such as hemiplegia, malignant tumor, hormone replacement therapy, etc.

Research technique

Through the use of CNKI and other databases, Wanfang database, we can look up and collect the references about sports, leisure, tourism and physical and mental health of middle school students at home and abroad.

An open questionnaire was used to investigate, and 100 elderly tourists were randomly sampled and 95 valid questionnaires were collected, with an effective recovery rate of 95.%.

Collect the data information of the collected questionnaires, process the collected data with Excel 2010 software, and statistically analyze the questionnaire survey results to meet the needs of research.

RESULT

Cognition and attitude of elderly tourists to sports leisure tourism activities

The survey results show that 68.37% people think that sports leisure tourism is a kind of healthy sports leisure experience. 68.37% people don’t know about sports, leisure and tourism activities. In addition, 79.82% of the respondents believe that active participation in sports and leisure tourism activities has a positive impact on elderly tourists. This shows that the elderly tourists have reached a basic consensus on participating in sports, leisure and tourism activities.

Comparison of sleep and appetite of elderly tourists between exercise group and non-exercise group

In the non-exercise group, 42.51% of elderly tourists reported poor sleep, while only 14.32% in the exercise group. In the interview, many elderly tourists said that they often have no appetite when eating. In the non-exercise group, 26.31% of the elderly tourists expressed poor appetite, while only 13.83% in the exercise group. (Table 2)

Table 2
Sleep and appetite status of elderly tourists in exercise group and non-exercise group.

Project	Group	n	Good	Common	poor
Sleep	Non-exercise group	45	18.21%	39.28%	42.51%
	Exercise group	55	31.02%	54.66%	14.32%
Appetite	Non-exercise group	45	29.88%	43.81%	26.31%
	Exercise group	55	52.11%	34.06%	13.83%

Comparison of anxiety improvement between two groups of tourists before and after travel

The anxiety improvement of tourists in exercise group and non-exercise group before and after travel can be measured by HAMA/HAMD reduction rate, in which: ≥75 is cured; ≥50 is effective; ≥ 25% for improvement; < 25 is invalid. (Table 3)

Table 3
Comparison of anxiety improvement between two groups of tourists before and after travel.

Group	Effective	Invalid	Total
Non-exercise group	34	11	45
Exercise group	49	6	55

Through Chi-square test on anxiety improvement of two groups of tourists before and after travel, we can get the difference between landscape type selection and anxiety improvement. Test results show that Pearson chi-square value is 5.24, and progressive sig. (bilateral) is 0.035, which means that different landscape types have significant differences in improving tourists’ anxiety.

Life satisfaction of elderly tourists in exercise group and non-exercise group

Most elderly tourists surveyed are satisfied with their current living conditions, but there are some differences in family satisfaction, communication satisfaction and freedom satisfaction between the exercise group and the non-exercise group, and the proportion of “very satisfied” expressed by the exercise group is significantly higher than that of the non-exercise group. (Figure 1)

Figure 1
Life satisfaction of elderly tourists in exercise group and non-exercise group.

The influence of travel time on the improvement of anxiety

The length of travel time has a significant impact on improving tourists’ anxiety. According to the investigation, 88 anxious tourists have different travel time, including 46 cases with 3 days or less, 22 cases with 3 ~ 7 days, and 20 cases with 7 days or more. The linear correlation analysis showed that there was a negative correlation between HAMA total score and travel time (r=-0.236, P<0.05), that is, with the extension of travel time, anxiety level decreased more.

Table 1
Cognition and attitude of elderly tourists to sports leisure tourism activities.

Cognition attitude	Proportion
Sports leisure tourism is a kind of healthy sports recreation experience	68.37%
Not familiar with	31.63%
Actively participating in sports and leisure tourism activities has a positive impact on elderly tourists	79.82%
Not familiar with	20.18%

DISCUSSION

Through sports, leisure and tourism activities, the respiratory system and cardiopulmonary function of elderly tourists can be significantly improved. Meanwhile, the acceleration of blood flow brought by sports can effectively improve the membrane anti-free radical ability of red blood cells and the deformation ability of red blood cells, and obesity, hyperlipidemia and hypertension can also be significantly improved.⁵ Elderly tourists participating in sports leisure tourism activities can improve their central nervous system, enhance the coordination of excitement and inhibition of cerebral cortex, and strengthen the nervous system in the alternating process of excitement and inhibition, thus improving and enhancing the flexibility, coordination and reaction speed of brain thinking and imagination. Participation in sports, leisure and tourism activities can enable elderly tourists to keep the interactive relationship with the society and make up for the loss or withdrawal of their roles due to retirement.⁶ Sports, leisure and tourism activities can regulate the nervous mood of human body, improve physiological and psychological state, and restore energy and physical strength, which is an important part of people’s life.

The entertainment of sports, leisure and tourism activities is determined by the characteristics of the project. It does not have the fierce antagonism of competitive sports, and can avoid the negative psychology caused by failure. Therefore, sports leisure tourism activities are completely suitable for middle-aged and elderly tourists. On the one hand, a proper amount of sports, leisure and tourism activities can help the elderly tourists to produce endorphins, which have obvious hypnotic effect; On the other hand, regular sports and leisure tourism activities can help elderly tourists adjust their biological cycle rhythm and relieve various pressures. The fatigue caused by sports and leisure tourism activities can also speed up the sleeping time of elderly tourists and improve their sleep quality. The results show that the length of travel time has a significant impact on improving tourists’ anxiety. The linear correlation analysis showed that there was a negative correlation between HAMA total score and travel time (r=-0.236, P<0.05), that is, with the extension of travel time, anxiety level decreased more. It shows that tourists can relax physically and psychologically through tourism activities.

Sports leisure tourism activities play an obvious role in improving the mental health of elderly tourists, which is determined by the characteristics of sports leisure tourism activities. Sports, leisure and tourism activities can freely choose activities, methods and time according to their own actual conditions, and engage in physical activities freely, independently and happily according to their own actual conditions, thus forgetting the troubles and pains in study and life. Literature starts from the theory of role change, and thinks that it is of great significance to correctly understand role change and actively participate in social activities, so that elderly tourists can obtain new secondary social roles for adapting to aging and adjusting their life after retirement. The fun of sports leisure tourism itself is the key to attract many sports enthusiasts. In order to eliminate the psychological tension and physical fatigue caused by the fast pace of work, most people choose to carry out sports leisure tourism activities in the wild. Studies have shown that moderate intensity sports can stimulate and strengthen the function of the immune system, while high intensity sports can inhibit the function of the immune system. 12.31% of the elderly think that excessive exercise will increase their physical fatigue, which shows that inappropriate sports, leisure and tourism activities may also have adverse effects on their health.

Scientific sports and leisure tourism activities can help elderly tourists to form the ability to adapt to the natural environment. Long-term sports and leisure tourism activities can effectively improve the health and physique of elderly tourists, and the coordination ability among various organizations and systems and the ability of various tissues and organs to withstand external stimuli are further enhanced. Anxiety disorder is a psychological disease with increased brain function alertness. Its clinical characteristics are panic, tension and unstable autonomic nerve function. Patients can always experience their inner and physical discomfort and actively seek outside help to get rid of this pain. People can enhance communication and interaction, thus increasing mutual understanding and help, and eliminating loneliness and loneliness. It is found that, the length of travel time is negatively correlated with anxiety level. The longer the travel time, the more obvious the improvement of tourists’ anxiety, which is directly related to the continuous positive stimulation brought by tourism. There is no pressure either mentally or physically. Sports leisure tourism activities are rich in content and flexible in forms, such as fishing, playing chess, etc., which make people feel relaxed and enjoy themselves.

Suggestion

For a long time, it has become a common understanding that sports, leisure and tourism activities play an important role in human health. As a matter of fact, leisure and fitness sports for the elderly have been rising all over the world in recent years, which is not only a simple sports phenomenon, but also a social movement. Participating in activities for the purpose of entertainment and physical fitness can relax the body and mind of elderly tourists and relieve their psychological pressure during exercise; Elderly tourists participate in sports and leisure tourism activities, which enhance social interaction, enhance mutual understanding and cultural identity of elderly groups, promote the stability and harmony of families and communities, and play an important role in building a harmonious socialist society.

Sports, leisure, tourism and sports are not only the carrier of leisure and health, but also the lubricant for expanding communication, enhancing emotional communication and making friends. It should be said that sports leisure tourism activities not only make people realize the benefits of physical fitness, but also make people realize the meaning and value of life, thus fundamentally changing people’s sports concepts and further developing sports functions.

To develop sports, leisure and tourism activities, it is necessary to establish a set of perfect organization and management institutions. From the state to the provinces, cities and counties, special departments in charge of mass sports work are set up, and then mass sports associations, sports guidance centers and clubs are set up by these departments to form an extensive mass sports social management network. Only by building a social sports guidance team with strong organizational ability and proficient in sports business can we effectively organize and guide the masses to carry out scientific fitness activities.

CONCLUSION

Sports, leisure and tourism activities are a process of self-improvement, which makes people sure that individuals have the ability to control their own health. Rich and colorful sports, leisure and tourism activities can give elderly tourists a healthy body and keep them alive. The elderly tourists broaden the emotional communication between people through sports, leisure and tourism activities, which is an active and effective means to alleviate the loneliness of elderly tourists. Systematic and scientific sports and leisure tourism activities can improve the socialization of elderly tourists, thus improving their satisfaction with family, environment and freedom, helping them successfully complete the psychological role transformation and improve their quality of life.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  13 May 2022
• Date of issue
  Sep-Oct 2022

History

• Received
  11 Dec 2021
• Accepted
  22 Dec 2021