\lo, Max of Adults With Mental Retardation

There is a growing need to understand the factors that influence an older adult's decision to be more (or less) physically active and the reasons behind those decisions. This exploratory field study was undertaken to begin identifying potential predictors of the leisure and physical activity patterns of seniors. In all, 119 Canadian older adults (M age 65.9 years) were interviewed in depth by trained interviewers who administered nine instruments designed to produce data on the formers' leisure and physical activity patterns. The test instruments included some adapted from the general literature, some standardized tools used in their original form, and others developed specifically for this study. Owing to the broad scope of the study, the quantity of data produced was diverse. A selection of the most noteworthy findings follows. The study's respondents engaged in more leisure activities (e.g . , cooking, reading, entertaining) than physical activities, and allocated more hours to leisure activities as well (average time 49.7 vs. 14.1 hrslweek). Second, the most popular physical activities were identified as walking, hiking, and bicycling. Third, although male subjects engaged in more physical activities than female subjects (4.70 activities vs. 3.99), the difference was not significant. Finally, age, the ability to articulate one's reasons for being active, and self-reported health conditions were the best correlates of physical activity patterns among the respondents. Although the study produced a lot of data, the work was flawed by what the researchers reported as a relatively small sample of convenience. Also, the dependence on respondent self-reports raises doubts about the generalizability of the findings.