The Comparison of Physical Activity in Different Sports Environments on The General Health and Lifestyle of Middle-Aged Women in Yazd city

Exercise and physical activity are one of the most effective methods of preventing middle–aged disorders, which causes the middle–aged period to be postponed and the middle–aged to enjoy more health and vitality. During middle age, especially in women, preventive measures that can reduce the incidence of various diseases, such as diseases related to the musculoskeletal system, can improve the quality of life of this group. During this period, taking measures to improve health and prevent disability also guarantees mental health. Different training environments each have their own advantages and disadvantages and middle age is one of the sensitive periods of human life. Different sports in different environments each have their own advantage. The present study was conducted in order to investigate the comparison of physical activity in different sports environments on the general health and lifestyle of middle–aged Women in Yazd.

This study was of semi–experimental and applied, where the statistical samples were selected by using the available targeted method and randomly divided into two experimental groups and control group. The statistical population of this study was formed by middle–aged women of Yazd city in 2021. The 120 middle–aged Women with an age range of 35 to 60 years in three experimental groups, including 30 in the sports club group, 30 in the morning sports group, and 30 in the water sports group, and a control group of 30 who did not do any physical activity, were investigated. The criteria for the participants to enter the research were being female, being between the ages of 35 and 60 years old, without having a specific disease or abnormality, and the criteria for leaving were not cooperating. In this research, to check the general health of the samples, the General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Hiller, 1979) was used. Also, to check the lifestyle, Health Promotion Lifestyle Questionnaire (Walker & Hill–Polerecky, 1996), was used. After collecting the data, the one–way ANOVA test and LSD Post hoc test were used to analyze the data. All data analysis was done by using the SPSS version 25 software. The significance level of the tests was considered to be 0.05

The results showed that the general health (p=0.033) and lifestyle (p<0.001) of middle–aged women who exercised in different environments were significantly different from each other. There was a significant difference in general health between the morning exercise group with the water sports group (p<0.001) and the gym group (p=0.012); But no significant difference was observed between the gym group and water sports group (p=0.078); There was a significant difference in lifestyle between the morning exercise group with the water sports group (p<0.001) and the gym group (p<0.001); But no significant difference was observed between the gym group and the water sports group (p=0.064); Also, there was a significant difference between the control group and each of the experimental groups in the variables of general health and lifestyle (p<0.001).

According to the results of the study, exercising in various sports environments increases the level of general health and improves the lifestyle of middle–aged women; Especially morning exercise have more influence on lifestyle and general health than other environments.