The Evaluation of Physical Health of Elderly Participants or Non-Participants in a Greek Dances Program

IntroductionHealth state, that is the self-evaluation of health level contributes to the attempt of determination of health state of the population and is a useful tool in the research and in the design of health services (Eriksson et al., 2001). A person's perception in point of his/her health is not always identified with the health level he/she reports in a self-evaluation.So, there could be a difference between the real health level as it is evaluated with a series of medical examinations, the perceived from a person health level and the self-evaluated health level. However, studies shown that the subjective health evaluation is related positively with its' objective evaluation from medical stuff(LaRue et al., 1979; Unden, & Elofsson, 2001). Thereupon, a person's health level, as it is determined via selfevaluation, presents a strong correlation with mortality, beyond and independently from risk factors that relate with a person's medical history and life model which he follows, in elderly as well as in young people (Heistaro et al., 2001; Idler, & Benyamini, 1997).Neverthless, people do not give the same meaning in "good health". So, in terms of sex, women relate more the bad health with the presence of painful symptoms and conditions (Heistaro et al., 2001), as well as with the absence of social and psychological well-being, while men with the absence of physical abilities (Unden, & Elofsson, 2001). Moreover, women complain more often for bad health than men. Elderly women, especially, experience a lower life quality (Prager et al., 1999; Sweeting, 1995). However, the results of a National research that conducted from the Greek National School of Public Health in Greece in 2001 with the collaboration of the World Health Organization and used the same questions with the present study as for health state, didn't show significant differences between men and women relatively with how they evaluate their health (Greek National School of Public Health, 2001).In addition, differences are observed between people of different educational level (Krause, & Jay, 1994). So, the higher educational level relates with better subjective evaluation of health level in both sexes (Greek National School of Public Health, 2001; Heistaro et al., 2001; Sweeting, 1995). Regarding the income, it appears that Greeks with higher incomes attribute better values at their health state. Then follow those with mediate incomes, while people with low incomes give the worst values (Greek National School of Public Health, 2001). In agreement, Heistaro et al. (2001) and Shibuya, Hashimoto and Yano (2002) found a rise of self-evaluated health level with an increase in the income. Socio-economic and psychological circumstances, as well as detrimental habits in a person's life are reflected in the way with which he/she evaluates his/her health level (Idler, & Kasl, 1991). From the other side, useful habits as exercise relate highly with health and wellbeing (Pikoula et al., 2007).In addition, subjective definitions of health determined in part through social comparisons. So, people who exercise are likely to compare their behavior with people of certain groups, such as sex or age groups, and to determine their physical activity as more frequent and intense compared to the typical one for these groups (Mechanic, 1972). However, aerobic exercise in our society does not appear to be a part of the roles the elderly play. Thus, it appears that participants in exercise programs are young people, as it is shown from the average of age of participants in different aerobic exercises: bicycling= 29,9 years, aerobic dance= 27,6 years, swimming= 29,8 years. Just in the case of walking for fitness the average of age is bigger (42,7 years) (Fitness Products Council, 1994).The last years, increasingly, exercise is suggested as a way for physical and psychological health improvement (Berger et al., 1998; Craft, 2005; Dimeo et al. …