Analysis of Physical Activities and Perceived State of Physiological and Psychological Health of Senior Citizens in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines

This study sought to determine the relationships between the level of physical activity with the perceived state of physiological and psychological health of 261 senior citizens in Los Banos, Laguna. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), the Short form of the Rand Medical Outcome Study Health Survey, and Spearman’s rank correlation test were used to determine the respondents’ level of physical activity, perceived state of health, and relationships between the variables, respectively. Results showed that on the average, the respondents’ level of physical activity was moderate to low. Less than half (46%) of the respondents perceived themselves to have low physical activity while a little more than a tenth (13%) considered themselves to have high physical activity. More than one third (39%) of the respondents were uncertain if they were physically healthy while 37% considered themselves unhealthy physiologially. Half (50%) of the respondents considered themselves psychologically healthy “some of the time” while a quarter (25%) of the sample believed that they were only healthy “a little bit of the time”. Results of the Spearman rank correlation tests yielded direct but very weak associations between the respondents’ physical activity and their perceived state of physiological and psychological health. Keywords: activity participation, health perception, International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), levels of physical activity, elderly, senior citizen