Facilitative Factors on Career Patterns of Sports Participation in Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A Comparative Study

participant among middle-aged and older adults, and to compare and examine the characteristics of facilitative factors in each career. This study was conducted as a secondary 2 analysis of the sports monitoring survey of the Kansai Region in 2018. The survey was 3 conducted online, with a random sampling of men and women over 18 years of age throughout 4 the Kansai area. The survey continued until the target sample size (10,000) was reached. The 5 main findings were as follows: (1) Facilitative conditions were extracted in accordance with the 6 free description of the reasons and causes that led the participants to participate in sports, and 7 not from conventional personal and environmental factors. The free description items 8 comprised 44, 35, and 44 conditions on adherence, adoption, and resumption careers, 9 respectively. (2) In relation to the occurrence of facilitative factors in sports participation in 10 order to clarify the characteristics of the extracted facilitative categories, a significant difference 11 was revealed in nine categories. Furthermore, the difference for each career was confirmed. (3) 12 In relation to the facilitative factors and patterns of sports participation, the characteristic 13 facilitative conditions for each participant were clarified. Based on these findings, the 14 facilitative factors are different for each career, and each career has its own characteristics. Specifically, individual subject's attitude, and preparedness in the adherence career, information, 16 and tools in the adoption career, and area and leader in the resumption career revealed their 17 characteristics. each individual in the resumption leader revealed their characteristics. These results may be beneficial for examining measures and projects to help individuals become promoted in sports participation because the factors that realized each career were identified based on actual experience.