The Participation Value of National-level Sports-for-all Programs Perceived by the Living-alone Elderly

Introduction

Issues related to contemporary people’s physical activities are at the center of social interest, and regular exercise is known to delay aging and extend people’s health-adjusted life expectancy. In Korea, however, only 9.9-22.6% of the elderly are doing exercise steadily (National Statistical Office, 2012), and the WHO reports that less than 40% of the aged throughout the world have adequate physical activities and the amount of physical activities is decreasing along with the expansion of the aged population. The aging of society is accompanied with various problems to be solved including elders’ economic problems, loneliness and sense of alienation, and health

problems. Entering into an aging society already, the Korean society is also experiencing changes in its policies on aging society. Currently as of 2012, the population aged over 65 occupies 11.8%, and the percentage is expected to grow to 14.3% (aging society) in 2018, and to 20.6% (super-aging society) in 2026 (National Statistical Office, 2011). If the current trend continues, the elderly population will approach 40% of the total population in 2050, making the country the most aged in the world, even surpassing Japan. The size of the elderly population aged over 65 was 5,890,000 in 2012 and is expected to increase to 8,080,000 in 2020 and 12,690,000 in 2030. Particularly from 2020, the baby boom generation born just after the Korean War in 1950 will begin to turn into the aged generation and, as a result, the elderly population aged over 75 will expand rapidly (Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2012).

The aging of population not only causes national and social problems, but also has a significant impact on the lives of individuals and families. From the position of the young generation engaged in economic activities, they have to take heavy social care giving burdens as well as the burden of preparing their own old lives, and consequently choices and opportunities for individual and family lives will be curtailed. The aged generation is also, though having a longer life expectancy, experiencing a poorer quality of life due to anxieties about income and health condition. Besides, with the acceleration of family differentiation and the increase in the number of elderly couple and single households, families’ burden of private caregiving for the aged is likely to be a serious problem (2012, Ministry of Health and Welfare).

In these changes in social structure, bigger concerns are the increasing number of elderly single households and the increasing number of isolated from family and society. According to data from the National Statistical Office in 2012, the number of elders living alone in 2011 was 1,124,000. The term ‘living-alone elderly’ may imply various meanings, but in general it refers to a social class suffering disadvantage or discrimination in political, economic, social and cultural areas due to their limitations in personal abilities, and consequently excluded socially from opportunities for acquiring life resources (Ko, 2009).

The issue of the living-alone elderly is even more serious considering their poorness in income, health, residence, and social contact. They are exposed to high risk of emotional isolation and lonely death because of their weak social relations characterized by loneliness, economic hardship, etc. Based on Article 27 Clause 2 of the Welfare of the Aged Act, the government has been executing the program of emergency safety care for the living-alone elderly, beginning with basic elderly care services in 2007. This program provides health and welfare services including one in-person visit a week, two checkup calls a week, and two or more sessions of health education a month. The current health welfare services are fragmentary elderly cares rather than active systems. Therefore if health promotion programs are applied actively to the elderly of alienated classes, such programs will reduce their medical expenses and improve their quality of life and life environment. In this sense, such programs are directly linked to elderly welfare. This is also related to ecosystemic development as a human right issue, and also to the equity of distribution for resolving the polarization of social structure.

From this point of view, understanding how sports-for-all programs provided in the national level are perceived by the living-alone elderly can be the an important step to promoting welfare for the living-alone elderly. It is even more important because analyzing the value of national-level sports-for-all programs used by the living-alone elderly can lead to practical health promotion through the practice of exercise, which may, in turn, result in the individual and national reduction of medical expense.

The objective of this study is proposing practical methods for promoting the exercise practice of the living-alone elderly who are disconnected from the society and living a lonely and bored life, by analyzing how the value of national-level sports-for-all programs provided to the living-alone elderly is perceived. The focus of health interventions for the living-alone elderly is not the treatment of diseases but the maintenance of body functions. That is, the purpose of health interventions should be prevention or remission through the maintenance of body functions. Accordingly, moving aside from the primary issue of reinforcing care for the living-alone elderly, this study aimed to systemize the importance of national-level sports-for-all for the living-alone elderly through the participants’ actual voices.

This effort is expected to contribute practically to health promotion and welfare policies for the living-alone elderly and to help search for the methodologies of research on silver sports activation policies and the living-alone elderly.

Methods

Data analysis and interpretation

Qualitative data analysis is an activity involving three processes: data summarization data arrangement and conclusion drawing and verification. This activity proceeds from designing and planning research, to collecting data, making preliminary data analyses, and reaching the final conclusions (Shin et al., 2004). In the analysis process of this study as well, analyses on in-depth interview data were made systematically along with data collection. In ethnography, data analysis does not begin after data collection but starts together with data collection, and data collection is finished only when analysis is completed. Accordingly, data analysis is made simultaneously with an interview in the field. Then, primarily collected data are reviewed and a decision on an additional interview is made for collecting further information.

In this study, data were analyzed largely through three steps. <Figure 1> diagrammed the data collection and analysis procedure of this study. First, data collected through an in-depth interview are transcribed with a word processor, and the agreement between the transcribed data and the contents of interview was confirmed by the interviewee. Second, transcribed data as raw data were categorized and classified by theme, and for the categorized factors, the categories were structured and common factors were classified according to sub-category. Then, the process of encoding by theme was done, in which transcribed data were read, and if the meaning of a repeated content was found, a theme name was given to the meaning. Third, through the process of encoding by theme, data were reduced in volume and simplified, and through the conceptualization of data, a large volume of data was systemized, rearranged, and reorganized. Through these processes, the researcher’s interest was tuned with the unit and level of analysis, and consequently conclusions were derived through meaningful interpretation and reinterpretation.

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Figure 1.

The flow of research on the participation value of national sports-for-all programs perceived by the living-alone elderly

Results

This study questioned how the living-alone elderly perceived the participation value of national-level sports-for-all programs, and attempted to explain the cultural meaning of the value of public sports-for-all programs. For this purpose, we sampled research subjects, collected data through in-depth interviews and participant observation, reviewed collected data repeatedly, and classified concepts that were considered important. In addition, the concepts were named through the comparative analysis of the similarity of their meanings, and similar concepts were grouped and abstracted further. Moreover, the groups were categorized into sub-categories and main categories. The outcome of this process is as in <Table 2>.

In this study, the participation value of national sports-for-all programs perceived by the living-alone elderly was divided into self-determined value category including choice of exercise type, fun, sense of achievement, expectation, health perception, and leisure culture, and concepts such as physical satisfaction, new experience, social satisfaction, and place and facility were grouped under the category of life satisfaction, In addition, values such as information acquisition, reduction of medical expense, lifelong education, and confidence were categorized under the factor of being a socializing agent. These categories and items of participation value of national-level sports-for-all programs perceived the living-alone elderly are as in <Figure 2>.

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Figure 2.

The Structural Relation among Concept and Category on the participation value of national sports-for-all programs perceived by the living-alone elderly

The arrows in Figure 2 indicate the stages through which three factors affect along the categorization of data analysis. There were five stages until the stage of value perception of government-level sports-for-all programs appreciated by the living-alone elderly, and each of the five stages can be distinguished with inclusion of subcategories and concepts. The finally categorized three factors affected from the stage of ambiguity to the stage of value perception.

Discussion

Previous studies on elderly sports-for-all have increased in volume, and many scholars have reported research outcomes on the effects of exercise and the validity of exercise programs. In the national level, moreover, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced ‘Health Investment Strategies’ for solving elderly health programs and securing driving forces for sustainable growth in the future. While responding to these trends, this study was focused more on the living-alone elderly who can easily overlooked by national-level sports-for-all systems. It began with the logic that if national-level sports-for-all programs contribute to living-alone elders’ health and quality of life, they may bring positive benefits to all of the elderly as well.

From this viewpoint, we went through the procedure of surveying and analyzing the values of national sports-for-all program perceived by the living-alone elderly sampled from 17 metropolitan cities and provinces and 5 places including K District and S District in Seoul Metropolitan City, G City and Y City in Gyeonggi-do, and Y District in Incheon Metropolitan City where sports-for-all programs were executed for the aged by sports-for-all organizations under the National Council of Sport for All. This study was conducted mainly as qualitative research based on ethnography. Accordingly, the living-alone elderly were surveyed through in-depth interviews, and continuous comparison and analysis were conducted through the procedure of data summarization, data arrangement, and conclusion drawing and verification. As a result, a total of 38 concepts, 13 sub-categories, and 3 categories were derived, and they are discussed as follows.

First, the self-determined value factor included sub-categories such as fun, sense of achievement, expectation, health perception, choice of exercise type, and leisure culture. This may represents a feedback phenomenon that the elders set specific personal goals of physical activity and participate by self-determination. Particularly with regard to fun, it is important to impress elders with the image that physical exercise itself is a fun, and because fun gives a psychologically comfortable and joyful feeling the activity itself becomes a pleasure (Izard, 1991). Participation in sports-for-all is ultimately the elders’own decision, and the decision is not just for the maintenance of health but also for playfulness. This means that interest induces their active participation. The living-alone elderly’s choice and participation are consistent with Deci’s (1989) inner motive theory, which claims reinforcement of their inner motive and therefore supports the results of this study. For the living-alone elderly, accordingly, sports-for-all should not be regarded as doing payless labor but as having fun from self-determination, which is an important factor for living-alone elders’practice and continuance of physical activities. Furthermore, the living-alone elderly appeared to have some expectations from their participation in physical activities or group activities. An expectation found in the self-determination factor was a sense of achievement. That is, their physical activity can be a process of self-awareness and resultant self-realization in terms of competence, health perception, and the use of leisure time. What is more, if physical activities are regarded as a part of leisure, it will prompt voluntary participation and imbue the elders with vitality of life. These self-determined values are consistent with the opinions of Maslaw (1967) and Mitchell (1973), according to whom setting a goal of participation in physical activities increases expectation for the results of given efforts and prompts participation and this may lead to self-realization and a sense of achievement that explain basic physical desires and mental desires.

Second, the factor of life satisfaction through sports-for-all participation included sub-categories such as physical satisfaction, new experience, social satisfaction, and place and facility. According to the theory that elders with high participation in social activities show higher psychological satisfaction or life satisfaction (Cavan, 1962; Lemon et al., 1972), there is a correlation between elders’ participation in social activities and their life satisfaction. Participation in sports-for-all by the living-alone elderly leads to their life satisfaction, and going further, to new experiences, social satisfaction, and maintenance of physical activities. Moreover, it may induce their pride in elderly exercise and vitality of life, relieving their loneliness and depression and enhancing their life satisfaction. This is also supported by the theory of Tinsley & Kass (1992) that if one displays his/her abilities successfully in a certain situation through an optimal experience in physical activities, it amplifies his/her joy and satisfaction.

Third, the value of being a socializing agent appeared in the forms of confidence, information acquisition, reduction of medical expense, lifelong education, etc. The living-alone elderly feel confidence in health and resolve loneliness through participation in physical activities (Wright, 1985; Preston, 1987), and play their role as a socializing agent. Because living-alone elders are keenly interested in health problems due to aging, if they are given objective information on their health status, they are eager to learn the effect of exercise prescription through counseling with an expert in elderly exercise, and this is directly linked to the reduction of medical expense. It is important to let the living-alone elderly to be conscious of their participation in social groups through physical activities. The role of sports socializing agent is significant for participation in sports. It is because a socializing agent plays the role of supporter who may lead and continue participation. For the living-alone elderly, sports-for-all are a productive and constructive cultural means that resolves boredom, and continuous participation in national-level sports-for-all may provide opportunities for them to build various networks by themselves as socializing agents. Although it is difficult for the living-alone elderly to establish relations with people around in new ways such as information acquisition, development of conversation skills, and education, but their participation in sports-for-all may play a catalytic role for preventing the contraction and disconnection of social relations and establishing new relations(Lee, 2012). Participation in national-level sports-for-all by the living-alone elderly is part of public elderly education, and can be a great catalyst for successful aging. Sports-for-all programs promoted in the public level can be applied adequately as social welfare education programs for the living-alone elderly in the blind area of welfare in the coming age of super aging.

Conclusion and suggestion

This study analyzed ethnographically the participation value of national-level sports-for-all programs perceived by the living-alone elderly. Specifically, the subjects of this study were living-alone elders aged over 65 who were participating in an elderly sports-for-all program in one of five places including K District and S District in Seoul Metropolitan City, G City and Y City in Gyeonggi-do, and Y District in Incheon Metropolitan City. With data obtained through in-depth interviews, continuous comparison and analysis were made through the procedure of summarization, data arrangement, and conclusion drawing and verification. As a result, a total of 38 concepts, 13 sub-categories, and 3 main categories were derived, and the main categories were self-determined value, life satisfaction through participation in sports-for-all, and being a socializing agent. This study is expected to provide information recorded in the vivid language of elderly sports-for-all fields, useful in search for methodologies of research on the living-alone elderly, and valuable in making policies on exercise programs for the living-alone elderly

This study has a number of limitations to be considered in subsequent studies as follows. First, as the subjects of this study had a regional limitation, it is necessary to expand the population for sampling. Second, studies need to conduct quantitative research with a larger number of participants in order to grasp the values of government-level sports-for-all perceived by the living-alone elderly. Third, based on the results of this study, subsequent research needs to develop specific sports-for-all programs for the living-alone elderly and to find differences between living-alone elders and ordinary elders.