SOCIETY. INTEGRATION. EDUCATION
18th International Scientific Conference. May 24-25, 2024, Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Rezekne, Latvia

Introduction Personality traits are stable and create an individuals’ behavior as well as allows to predict what kind of exercise type, intensity and frequency they might choose (Allen, Greenlees, & Jones, 2011).  Involvement in physical activity can predict the dimension of such personality traits as extroversion and consciousness (Gallagher, Yancy, Denissen, Kühnel, & Voils, 2013). Research indicates that aerobic excercise promotes a healthy aging process as aerobic activity improves heart and respiratory system, by increasing the oxygen circulation as well as the heart and respiratory rate (WHO, 2009). The main objective of this study was to explore personality traits associate with long-term aerobic physical activity in seniors. Methods Participants were 26 adults, aged from 65 to 80 years (M = 72,65, SD = 4,8). The participants were divided into three groups based on the level of aerobic physical activity in their daily lives. In the first group we included seniors with regular long-term aerobic physical activity experience, in the second group we included seniors with short-term regular aerobic physical activity experience and in the third group we included seniors that do not engage in aerobic physical activity. The data were obtained with four questionnaires – „Latvian Personality questionnaire”(LPA-v3, Perepjolkina, Reņģe, 2013),a modified version of „Social Determinants of Health Behaviours” (FINBALT, 2014), „The International Physical Activity Questionnaire – modification for elderly „ (Hurting-Wennolof, Hagstromer, & Olsson, 2010) and Demographic Data questionnaire ( age, sex, native language). Participation in the study was voluntary and all patients signed Informed Consent Form before participating in the study.

Results: Between the three groups significant differences in neurotism scale were observed (F = 4,624, P < 0,05). There were no significant correlations across all groups and the six personality dimensions.

Conclusions: One of the main limitations of the study is the lunequal distribution of groups basd on gender. Another and possibly more significant limitation is the lack of more regular and vingorous exercise in the group with long-term aerobic physical activity experience, witch is higher in some of the participants with short-term experience. This creates a challlenge in creating objective physical activity groups.

aerobic physical activity; long-term physical activity; personality traits