The effect of recreational swimming exercises on emotional state in postmenopausal women

This research was conducted to examine the effect of recreational swimming exercise on the emotional state of postmenopausal women. A total of 68 women, 34 experimental and 34 control groups, who were in the postmenopausal period, participated in the study. The research was conducted in a comparative experimental type with a pre-posttest experimental-control group. Postmenopausal women were taken two days a week and one hour a day, a total of 8 weeks of recreational swimming practice, and before and after physical measurements were taken. In the study, "Beck Hopelessness Scale, Oxford Happiness Questionnaire and Short Psychological Resilience Scale" were used to determine the emotional state of postmenopausal women. In the analysis of the data, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis Test Statistics and Spearman Correlation analysis, which are non-parametric tests for BHS, OHQ-SF and pre-test SPRS score values, were performed, while T-test, Anova, Pearson Correlation analysis was used for the SPRS post-test scores of the groups has been applied. The analyzes in the study were examined at a 95% significance level (p <0.05). Post-menopausal women in the experimental group significantly decreased their anthropometric measurement values after exercise. While the hopelessness levels of women in the experimental group were higher before exercise, their levels of hopelessness decreased significantly after the exercise. There was also a significant increase in the happiness and psychological resilience levels of the women in the experimental group after exercise. When the pretest and posttest scores of postmenopausal women in and between groups were examined, it was found that as the degree of hopelessness decreased, their happiness and psychological resilience increased. In the experimental group, a statistically significant relationship was found between the emotional states of postmenopausal women and independent variables. It was concluded that the recreational swimming exercise program applied to postmenopausal women has a significant effect on the physical and psychological health of the participants and can be used as a treatment tool for the emotional mood of women in this period.