Modified sports with shorter game times and more focus on fun than winning could prove key to encouraging older Australians to play sport and keep fit.
New Flinders University research has found adults play sport for the enjoyment, to improve their fitness and to socialize, but injuries, illness and family commitments can hamper participation.
“We know that in Australia, two thirds of young people play sport, but this drops to only a third when looking at Australians aged over 55,” says study lead author Sarah Crossman, a Ph.D. Candidate in Flinders University’s College of Education, Psychology & Social Work.
“However, at this age, people often turn to other physical activities such as bushwalking or going to the gym so it’s not that they don’t enjoy physical activity any longer but instead have decided to stop playing organized sport.
“With over a third of Australians likely not to be doing enough exercise each week, organized sport could prove a useful public health tool if we could encourage more people to join or continue playing.”
Published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise, the authors reviewed almost 100 existing studies featuring more than 48,000 people to investigate why adults participated in sport and what stopped them…
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