Exercise activity and self-image/self-esteem in nursing home residents

Abstract

This study discusses the effects on the self-image/self-esteem of institutionalized elderly people of a program of systematic physical exercises. The elderly people that participated in this study live at SEOVE (the nursing home studied) in Florianópolis, Brazil. They were divided into two groups, an experimental group (n = 15) and a control group (n = 12) and underwent a pre-test. The experimental group followed a program of physical exercise with a frequency of 3 60-minute sessions per week for a period of 5 months. At the end of this period a post-test was applied to both groups. The Steglich (1978) questionnaire was used to evaluate the self-image/self-esteem. Differences were observed between pre-test and post-test data for the experimental and control groups’ self-image/self-esteem. After exposure to the program of systematic physical exercise, nursing home residents exhibited signifi cant differences in self-esteem between the experimental group and the self-image control group.