Percepção de saúde e qualidade de vida: um inquérito com praticantes de pilates

Abstract

With the process of modernization and technological development, the population today is seeking many ways to a better quality of life. It is observed an increase in the diversity of physical activity programs, and between them stands Pilates, which is a form of physical activity that is based on principles to keep body and mind healthy. Objetive: Assess the perception of health and quality of life of Pilates practitioners. Methods: It was conducted a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study. The study involved 85 people, 69 women and 16 men, of whom 37 (43.5%) formed the group of those who practiced Pilates less than a year and 48 (56.5%) those who practiced more than a year. To collect the data it was applied the SF- 36 quality of life questionnaire, and a questionnaire prepared by the researcher to identify the profile of Pilates practitioners and assess their self-perceived health. Collected data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 17.0), adopting a significance level of 5%. Results: Selfperception of health of the practitioners of Pilates is satisfactory. Most are practicing to improve their quality of life, i. e., health promotion; and they realize that their health is better than others and better than before the practice of Pilates. Conclusion: Overall, quality of life level was not different between groups, but individuals with more than one year of practice in Pilates have greater functional capacity.