登山の励行が心身の健康に与える影響についての調査研究：

ウォーキング励行者との比較から

抄録

　The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence and characteristics of weekly hill walking in comparison with habitual flat walking in elderly people. The hill walkers in this study were members of a mountaineering group who did about 3.5 hours of hill walking more than twice a month, and the flat walkers were members of walking groups who went walking more than once a week. Both the hill walkers and flat walkers continued the exercise for more than 2 years and individuals over 50 were extracted and analyzed. The time for 1 walk was 1.5±0.8 hours. The frequency and exercise volume per week were 1 time (19 Mets· h/wk) for the hill walkers and 4 times (26 Mets· h/wk) for the flat walkers. The contents of the questionnaire survey were age, sex, the reason for starting each exercise, period of exercise, chronic diseases and changes in the subjective sense of well-being. It was found that the prevalence rates of chronic diseases were lower than the general average values for the same generation, and more than half of the subjects recognized positive changes in their subjective sense of well-being after starting these exercises in both groups. On the other hand, more people in the flat walking group than those in the hill walking group became aware of an increase in walking speed. In contrast, the prevalence rate of diabetes in the hill walkers was lower than that in the flat walkers, and a high percentage of hill walkers felt an improvement of knee pain and better physical strength. These differences were significant. In addition, the proportion of individuals who recognized psychological changes was higher in the weekly hill walkers. More specifically some items such as “I have a wider circle of friends”, “My life became richer”, and “I feel refreshed” showed high scores, and showed significant differences. In conclusion, these findings suggest that, in elderly people, 3.5 hours of weekly hill walking has potentially positive effects on some items related to health, physical fitness, and mental state in comparison with about 1.5 hours of flat walking 4 times a week.