There is a lack of research on Korean prospective elderly persons. In particular, there is little research regarding whether social support has a mediating effect on the relationship between physical activity and aging anxiety. Accordingly, this study investigated how social support affected physical activity and aging anxiety in 778 prospective senior citizens (55 to 65 years old) out of a total of 1447 senior citizens who participated in the Embrain Panel Power and Panel Marketing Interactive. Participants completed the IPAQ (International Physical Activity Questionnaires), Social Support Scale, and Aging Anxiety Scale. Physical activity in these Korean pre-older adults affected aging anxiety (p < 0.001), with a fixed effect of physical activity on social support (p < 0.001). Further, social support affected aging anxiety (p < 0.001). Social support was also an important parameter in the relationship between physical activity and aging anxiety. In conclusion, high physical activity of pre-older Korean persons lowered their anxiety regarding aging. Social support acted as a mediator that lowered anxiety regarding aging in the most active pre-older persons.

We developed evaluation indicators for sports facilities for people with disabilities and adopted the universal design to conduct Delphi surveys on sports facilities and sports experts. First, the range of universal design element reflection and the method of deriving the evaluation indicators were established through a literature review. Second, 21 experts conducted the first Delphi survey to select the important features of the seven principles of universal design and describe the necessary sub-factors to consider when designing sports facilities. The described elements were divided into 15 categories, and 49 sub-factors were extracted. Third, based on the evaluation of the indicators’ content, acceptance was investigated, and the survey data were analyzed through indicators of reliability and validity of the sub-factors and categories. Fourth, we discussed whether to accept the standard value on the basis of the evaluation index through an expert meeting. Subsequently, the final evaluation index was obtained. The developed evaluation index should be applied by the operators and users of public sports facilities, and validation work is needed. Guidelines for applying the universal design to various sports facilities for people with disabilities should be developed. The financing of sports facilities applying the universal design and related policies should be discussed.

The present study aimed to empirically determine the relationship between the degree of exercise participation by the elderly people and their euphoria. The analysis results are as follows. First, the difference between the elderly people's participation in the exercises and the euphoria that they have experienced showed that in all low variables of euphoria, the group who participated in the exercises showed a higher level of euphoria than the group who did not participate in the exercises. Second, the analysis of the effects of the elderly people's motivations for exercise participation on euphoria showed that there was a significant relation between the two. Furthermore, the following suggestions were made for areas that the current study did not cover, as well as for the follow-up studies. The follow-up studies would need an in-depth multiangled analysis of various fun factors in order to encourage the elderly people to participate in the exercises by conducting interviews and observation studies with the study participants.

This study was conducted to develop evaluation indicators for instructor-led management of sports centers for the disabled using universal design (UD) principles in South Korea. These indicators have been developed through Delphi technique to identify the effectiveness of an instructor's management skills. There were 11 documents related to UD used in the literature review, and seven were related to the evaluation index. Through reading and analyzing the relevant contents of the collected literature and many rounds of the Delphi technique, we selected the method and criteria for deriving the evaluation index. In this study, we developed a method that constitutes an evaluation index. The index comprises one evaluation criterion and four evaluation indices. First, for the sub-items of the “recruitment” category, four principles of UD and one supplementary principle of product performance program (PPP) were applied to create items for the evaluation index. Second, the sub-items of the “education” category comprise three evaluation criteria and 10 evaluation indicators. These were applied to the fourth principle of UD and the first and second by-supplementary principles of PPP. The third category, “welfare,” comprised two evaluation criteria and six evaluation indices, and the first by-supplementary principle of PPP was applied to the evaluation indices. The index created for evaluating instructors in sports centers using the method elucidated in this study was adequately reliable. Following a similar method, more evaluation indicators should be developed for evaluations of other functions (such as programs, public relations, safety, and finance) based on the principles of UD.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relative importance and priority of what factors should be reflected in the administration to efficiently consider the needs of people with disabilities for the physical activity (PA) environment in South Korea. To achieve the purpose of the study, 32 experts (e.g., faculty members, administrators) with more than 5 years of experience with PA for people with disabilities were asked to prioritize the factors that should be reflected in the PA environment. The questionnaire consisted of 4 factors in the upper-layer (H2), 8 factors in the middle-layer (H3), and 38 items in the low-layer (H4). The research instrument was composed of a pairwise comparison of decision elements to analyze the priority. For the analysis of the questionnaire data, the relative importance and priority were analyzed using Expert Choice 2000, a solution dedicated to priority analysis. The results are as follows. The relative importance of H2 was determined by programs, instructors, facilities, and information. In the relative importance among H3, the program type was determined as the highest factor in the program, and instructor expertise was determined as the highest factor in the instructor. The type of facility was determined as the highest factor in the facility, and the information provider was determined as the highest factor in the information. As a result of analyzing the priority of H4, it was found that the program within the sports facilities had the highest priority.

Exercise products based on universal design, which reduce restrictions on the exercise environment and ensure convenience and safe use, are beneficial for people with a disability; however, the current universal design only considers the preferences of the general population, which is not suitable for the disabled population. This results in the exclusivity of the sports facilities and supplies for people with a disability. Consequently, we explored the components of universal design and product satisfaction by considering users with disabilities and proposed the direction for designing extended universal exercise equipment that is suitable for them. Specifically, this study focuses on developing exercise equipment for people with a disability. Based on the results from the evaluation of acceptance and satisfaction of universal sports products for people with a disability using design thinking, we suggest the following. First, it is necessary to consider safety devices for exercise products. Second, the user interface should be improved in terms of convenience. Third, the ergonomic instrument design should be improved. Finally, the instrument design should be centered on user convenience.