shintaido in the elderly the new way for physical and psychological healthshintaido老年人身心健康的新方法.pdf

Vol.1, No.2, 22-30 (2012) Advances in Aging Research /10.4236/aar.2012.12003 Shintaido in the elderly: The new way for physical and psychological health 1 1 1 2 1 Mattia Roppolo , Anna Mulasso , Daniele Magistro , Antonella Roggero , Patrizio Andreoli , Monica Emma Liubicich1* 1Motor Science Research Center, S.U.I.S.M., University of Torino, Torino, Italy; *Corresponding Author: monica.liubicich@unito.it 2Department of Psychology, University of Torino, Torino, Italy Received 17 June 2012; revised 15 July 2012; accepted 23 July 2012 ABSTRACT 1. INTRODUCTION The research aims to investigate the effects of The increase in elderly population and in the number a Shintaido practice in terms of physical and of sedentary individuals leads us to reflect on the need to psychological functioning in a group of elderly. identify protective factors for maintaining as long as pos- Forty seniors, of both gender, with a mean age sible a good level of physical and psychological func- of (69 ± 6) years, self-sufficient and without tioning in old citizens. highly invalidating diseases participated in the Physical activity is one of the major protective factors study. The experimental group (EG) attended on the elderly health [1] and the age is not a barrier to the Shintaido physical training of 20 weeks (1 practice it. The literature shows that regular physical exer- hour per session, twice a week), while the con- cise produces both physi