Physical and mental fitness examined

On April 29, 2015, the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences hosted the final event of the research project "Senior activities in the Czech-Saxon border region", which was carried out at the Faculty of Social Sciences together with the Liberec association ProWel last year. The physical and mental fitness of around 80 senior citizens from the Görlitz district and the Liberec region aged between 60 and 84 was tested using various cognitive and physical tests. More than 50 senior citizens attended the final event in the large auditorium of the GI building (Blue Box). The project manager, Prof. Dr. habil. Gisela Thiele, presented some of the key findings from the evaluation of all the test results. A comparison of the results from the district of Görlitz and the Liberec area revealed revealing differences.

For example, the cholesterol levels of the Czech participants were lower, while the German senior citizens had better blood pressure levels on average. This can possibly be attributed to a corresponding long-term health policy with different priorities in the two countries. The German participants achieved better results in the memory tests. The project also revealed differences in terms of family life. The Czech seniors have closer contact with family and friends, while 7% of the German participants complained of loneliness.

A special procedure was used to investigate which behavioral types the test subjects belonged to. Behavior was analyzed according to success/failure. The majority of the German test participants (39%) belong to the behavioral type with medium correctness: they react to external feedback but are rigid about their ideas. Their behavior is not guided by spontaneous impulses. The majority of Czech test takers (30%) chose an easier task despite success in one task. It is more important for them. to avoid failure than to achieve success. On the German side, only 8% of the participating seniors belonged to this type of behavior.

However, the findings from the individual studies cannot be automatically transferred to all senior citizens in the two areas, as they took part in the project at their own request and were not randomly selected on the basis of a representative distribution. For both project teams, however, it was important to test the feasibility and organization of the various surveys on the older target group and thus provide a trial run for a larger research project. This is because the individual forms of investigation, which were originally developed on the Czech side for competitive athletes, were tested for the first time on the 65+ target group. A larger research project with 500 participants is to be applied for.

The various test results were presented and evaluated in detail in a more than 180-page manual. The senior citizens involved in the project received a copy of this manual. Anyone interested can download the text from the bilingual website www.activsenior.eu.