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ABSTRACT

Old age is inevitable for everyone in the society. The world elderly population has increased tremendously and special measures are taken to secure their well being. One of the vital steps towards securing elderly health is through participation in exercise. The purpose of this quantitative research was to explore ways in which exercise functions as a boost to elderly health in multicultural environment. The aims are to get an overall view of elderly awareness and experiences about exercise and to find out the role played by nurses in provision of exercise to elderly. Research method of the thesis was quantitative, whereby questionnaires as data collection method were distributed to the elderly in three countries: China (Ri Yuexing nursing home), Kenya (Eldoret and Cherangani nursing home), and Finland (Purola elderly home). Manual way, Microsoft Excel and SPSS programme were used as a descriptive statistics technique to analyze the data and table and graphs were made to reflect the results. The research questions were: What are the elderly experiences about exercise? How do elderly implement exercise? How do the elderly experience the effects of exercise on their health? What is nurses’ role in promotion of exercise among elderly? The results of this research showed most elderly are aware of the importance of exercises. Age is not a limiting factor to exercise since there are different forms of exercises as adopted by the elderly. It also showed the active role played by nurses and families in promoting exercises to the elderly. Through exercise, the quality of elderly life is improved since exercise helps to keep them strong, active and healthy.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

As it has been noted that the majority of the population is aging, there is a great need for health promotion of elderly in order to enable them to carry out day to day tasks independently. Exercise as the most common and effective way of boosting health has been advocated among elderly for years. However, elderly people who have multi-illnesses have restricted activities due to their general condition. By age 75, about one in three men and one in two women engaged in no physical activity (Harber 2007, 139).

Older adults with higher exercise fulfillment demonstrated better mental and psychological health, regardless of their physical activity levels. Older adults with low-exercise fulfillment could potentially improve their physical abilities; however, their mental and psychological health significantly differed from that of older adults with medium or high-exercise fulfillment after exercise intervention. These findings provide preliminary evidence, which indicates that exercise can provide sufficient fulfillment and contribute to the promotion and improvement of health in older adults. Moreover, performing adequate tests on exercise fulfillment may aid in assessing the effects of intervention programs in healthcare system. (Sakurai & Fujiwara & Fukaya & Saito & Yasunaga & Suzuki & Nonaka & Kim & Kim & Tanaka & Nishikawa & Uchida & Shinkai & Watanabe 2012, 743-54).

According to the authors of this thesis, exercise has been underestimated or even ignored in real implementation which brings about patients’ physical deterioration. The authors of this thesis have encountered various examples during previous practical experiences. In health care it has been assumed that health is basically maintained through nutrition and drugs. For example, sleeping problem is more common with the elderly and it surely affects individuals and their families. Often elderly patients use a lot of drugs for this problem including sleeping pill many of which have side effects. The results of Fábio’ s present study indicate that, elderly subjects submitted to chronic moderate training presenting improved sleep quality. (Fábio & Gustavo & Ronaldo & Lila & Damaso & Nascimento & Valter & Boscolo & Grassmann & Santana & Esteves & Tufik & Mello 2011, 113-118).

The purpose of this research is to explore ways in which exercise functions as a boost to elderly health promotion. The increasing number of people living longer has led to international interest in the enhancement of quality of life and health-related quality of life in older age (Bowling 2005). The aim of this research was to get an overall view of the elderly awareness and experiences about exercise in the multicultural background. The aim was also to find out the role of nurses in provision of exercise. This research was carried out to map the ways of implementing exercise for the aged population. The authors wanted to get more evidence that exercise promotes elderly health in various ways ranging from physical, psychological, cognitive, and sociological and obtain more positive influences of exercise on elderly people so that they really realize its importance as method of health promotion. It also includes the suitable ways and guidance that nurses can utilize to promote elderly health by implementing exercise in appropriate ways.

The theoretical part of this research entails aging, types and effects of exercise to elderly, health issues of elderly and nurses’ role in promotion of exercise on elderly health. The empirical part was carried out in Finland (Purola elderly home), Kenya (Eldoret and Cherangani nursing home) and China (Ri Yuexing elderly home). This research is meant to be utilized by other researchers, student nurses, paramedics, family members of elderly and any potential readers.

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