GENDER-DEPENDENT FITNESS- AND HEALTH CENTRE EVALUATION BY RESIGNED MEMBERS

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine if and to what extent the evaluations of fitness studios by persons who have recently resigned from their membership are related to general studio conditions such as studio atmosphere, facilities, trainer’s competence and other features. In the evaluations and statistical analyses presented here, it is examined to what extent male and female dropouts differ in their evaluations of the fitness studios. Assuming that the sports studio evaluation may have played a role in the quitting decision to a certain extent, the question of gender differences concerning the quitting decision is therefore also indirectly posed. In other words, the question is whether there are typical prioritizations on positive or negative evaluations by dropouts from fitness sport. A total of 225 people, who had terminated their contract with a fitness studio, were questioned. The survey was conducted as a telephone inquiry about their actual decision. The study was conducted in a health-oriented fitness centre in East Cologne. The fitness facility was opened in 1994 and has a size of 1,100 square metres. At the time of the study, the gym had up to 1,151 memberships. Among them, 59% of the members were women and 41% were men. The average age of the respondents was 43.5 years. The average duration of membership added up to 4.4 years. On the whole, the various aspects of the studio offer and its surroundings were largely rated as "good". The respondents particularly expressed their appreciation for the coaches (friendliness, helpfulness, competence), followed by opening hours, trial training and the first impression. The membership costs and individual aspects such as space, music and ventilation are evaluated more critically, if not really badly. In practice, there were no significant differences between the genders in the studio evaluation. Purely descriptive, both subgroups are very close to each other in their mean values in all 19 aspects of the studio evaluation. The most significant difference lies in the evaluation of the studio location, which is also significant at the 5% level, but still remains small at the absolute level of the difference.

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