APAS project

The project aims to identify the impact that the use of new technologies can have on increasing and sustaining physical exercise among senior citizens. The aim is to create an application offering users, via their cell phone, a set of physical exercises of varying intensity which, once completed, earn points. Depending on the number of points obtained, the user can access an interface offering questions, riddles and anecdotes on a variety of themes: on the body during exercise, but also on the culture, history and mining or natural heritage of the basin. Here, the aim is to give meaning to effort by giving meaning to the area. Indeed, some studies have suggested that while access to certain landscaped or "naturalized" spaces, or to certain local sports facilities, seems to have a positive influence on the level of physical activity practice [Bauman et al., 2012], the presence of these open spaces is not sufficient for them to be effectively used by the population [Gustat et al., 2019; Sharman et al., 2019]. Idea 1 developed here is that "curiosity about places", aroused and quenched by the app, is a vector of involvement in physical activity.

The Bassin Minier, with its strong identity and its people's attachment to their territory and its past, seems particularly well-suited to establishing this link between soft mobility and the discovery of places, the impact of which will need to be measured in terms of increasing (and then sustaining) physical activity among senior citizens.

The study, which brings together experts in the field of soft mobility, will be carried out by a team of experts in the field of soft mobility. The study, which brings together researchers from several disciplines (biomechanics, ergonomics, neurophysiology, sociology) will focus on walking, but may be extended to any other form of soft mobility. It is aimed at a very specific type of population
. First of all, members of two clubs in the coalfield: Saint-Amand-les-Eaux (170 members) and Lens (159 members). However, while the former is affiliated to the Fédération Française de retraite sportive, the latter left the federation in October 2024. Despite the good relations maintained by our "contact person" with the club's members and management, there is still some doubt as to whether we will be able to keep these seniors on our panel.
Then there are the members of the APA structures in Lens. Then there are the members of the APAVALS structures (around 200 members), who are spread throughout the Valenciennes Métropole Agglomeration Community, mainly in the QPV districts.
Within the structures managed by these APAVALS structures, there are also a large number of members of the Valenciennes Métropole Agglomeration Community, mainly in the Valenciennes Métropole Agglomeration Community. Within the structures managed by these two partners, we should meet seniors from all social categories.