Effects of Twelve-Week Water-Fitness Exercise on Physical Functional Fitness, Physical Self-Esteem and Well-Being in Older Adults

The purposes of this study were to compare the differences of functional physical fitness, physical self-esteem and well-being between experimental and control groups of older adults, and to explore the effects of functional physical fitness on physical self-esteem and well-being. One hundred and forty-one older adults aged above 65 years were recruited as the subjects from three institutional care homes, and all subjects were divided into experimental (n = 79) and control (n = 62) groups. Participants completed physical self-esteem inventory and wellbeing inventory before and after experiments. The results were as follows: 1). The post-test scores of functional physical fitness, physical self-esteem and well-being were significantly different between experimental and control groups. 2). The scores of functional physical fitness, physical self-esteem and well-being were different between pre-test and post-test in experimental group. 3). The functional physical fitness explained the variance of physical self-esteem (61.7%) and well-being (60.1%) respectively. It is concluded that twelve-week water-fitness exercise was considered as a safe and suitable exercise for older adults. Water-fitness exercise could promote the functional physical fitness in older adults, and also promote physical self-esteem and well-being.