Abstract
Objectives : In recent years, there have been an increasing number of pool installations in municipal institutions and an increased effort to promote health through water exercise and swimming programs. Our study conducted cross-sectional research on adult men and women to determine the state of participation in water exercise programs and its association with health.
Materials and Methods : We surveyed 257 subjects who participated in health checkups and a water exercise program, using a questionnaire. We measured blood pressure and visceral fat, then obtained blood biochemistry data.
Results : To analyze differences in the means and distributions among psychological factors, nutrition, exercise and physical factors including biochemistry data, the subjects were divided into three groups, namely, the “water-exercise group”, “exercise other than waterexercise group” and the “not exercising group”. About significantly psychological factors related to health condition, life satisfaction and happiness, more subjects in the groups performing water exercise and exercise other than water exercise indicated “better” compared to those in the non-exercising group (p<0.01). About nutritional habits, significantly more subjects in the groups performing water exercise and exercise other than water exercise to indicate a preference for non salty food compared to those in the non-exercising group (p<0.01). On biochemistry data, HDL cholesterol was significantly higher in the water exercise group than in the other two groups (p<0.01). The mean systolic blood pressure in the water exercise group was significantly lower than that in either the exercise other than water exercise or non exercising group (p<0.01). To evaluate the relationship between a healthy life and health-related factors including psychological factors, nutrition, exercise and physiological factors, covariance structure analysis was adopted to analyze the causation modeling composed by those factors. The results suggested that performing water exercise was strongly related to a healthy life.
Conclusion : Water exercise was found to be effective in building a healthy life.
