A case study on senior citizens' sporting activities, health and motivation for life -Based on data compiled from senior citizen club members in K City, Hokkaido-　

This study was conducted targeting 780 members of 11 senior citizen clubs, which we randomly selected from among 55 clubs belonging to the Senior Citizen Club Association in K City of Hokkaido. We brought questionnaires to the respondents' homes which we then retrieved with their answers after a certain period. The questionnaire was comprised of 18 questions regarding senior citizens' healthy lives, sporting activities and motivation for life. A total of 544 questionnaires were collected (the recovery rate: 69.7%). The summary of the results are as follows: (1) When asked about their family makeup, 14･5% of the respondents answered that they were livingalone: 3.8% of all male participants and 19.9% of all female participants lived by themselves. The ratio of the women living alone showed a significantly-higher number, more than five times that of men (P<0.01). (2) Over the last six months, approximately 86% of the respondents visited medical institutions. Of them, the ratio of people aged 80 or older amounted to 97%. However, 76% considered themselves healthy while living their daily lives, an indication that there was a large gap between objective data and a subjective view of health. In addition, 85% were mindful of their own health, which showed a high interest.(3) Approximately 79% of the respondents participated in some kind of sports over the past year and the ratio significantly decreased with increasing age (P