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

The purposes of this study were to identify facilitative factors in career patterns of sports 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 analysis of the sports monitoring survey of the Kansai Region in 2018. The survey was conducted online, with a random sampling of men and women over 18 years of age throughout the Kansai area. The survey continued until the target sample size (10,000) was reached. The main findings were as follows: (1) Facilitative conditions were extracted in accordance with the free description of the reasons and causes that led the participants to participate in sports, and not from conventional personal and environmental factors. The free description items comprised 44, 35, and 44 conditions on adherence, adoption, and resumption careers, respectively. (2) In relation to the occurrence of facilitative factors in sports participation in order to clarify the characteristics of the extracted facilitative categories, a significant difference was revealed in nine categories. Furthermore, the difference for each career was confirmed. (3) In relation to the facilitative factors and patterns of sports participation, the characteristic facilitative conditions for each participant were clarified. Based on these findings, the 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, and tools in the adoption career, and area and leader in the resumption career revealed their characteristics.