Der Einfluss der Gesundheit und gesundheitlicher Einschränkungen auf die sportliche Aktivität im mittleren und höheren Erwachsenenalter

• Applicant: Dr. Simone Becker
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2010 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 182993273

In the first funding phase of the research project, changes in physical exercise as a consequence of changes in health are identified and the conditions, target groups and possible measures predictive of initiating or maintaining physical exercise are analyzed. A key outcome of the first funding phase is that health is a precondition for initiating and maintaining physical exercise. A qualitative study conducted in parallel identified 4 types of exercises among people with chronic disease. Various barriers to exercising and reasons for cessation of exercise were also identified in this context. The Health-Exercise-Biography Survey (HEBS) offers very significant potential for analysis beyond the first funding phase. Therefore, further investigations into the relationship between exercise and health are proposed for funding phase 2. Research in another three main areas is planned using various methods and approaches.The first such area of analysis is the exercise compliance of individuals with and without chronic diseases. In view of the extensive documentation of disease biographies and disease-specific documentation of exercise recommendations issued by doctors in the HEBS, the HEBS survey enables highly differentiated analysis of medical exercise recommendations as a function of health status, and levels of compliance by individuals with a wide variety of chronic diseases as well as subjects with no chronic diseases. It is proposed to investigate the effect of the presence of various diseases on the propensity of doctors to recommend exercise and the propensity of patients to comply with those recommendations. Another research question concerns the reasons for "very good" health status. When individuals describe their health as "very good," what do they attribute it to? Of special interest in this context is whether and in what way members of this population consider physical activity to be relevant. With regard to the third research question to be considered, it is proposed to link HEBS data with regional data. As the impact of health on exercise depends to an extent on the social structure of the respective geographical area, multilevel analysis will be used to assess the impact of health indicators, sociodemographic variables (personal characteristics) and socio-spatial characteristics (e.g. community size, population density) on exercise and changes in exercise habits.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants