A Glance at a Community Exercise and Nutrition Program for Older Adults

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A Glance at a Community Exercise and Nutrition Program for Older Adults

It is important to understand the factors that influence community adoption of evidence-based programs that can improve health outcomes among older adults. Physical activity and good dietary practices are important factors that must be considered when assessing health problems and health outcomes of older adults in the community. By incorporating physical activity and good dietary practices, this can prevent or delay the onset of health conditions such as stroke, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. Community-based physical activity interventions have been shown to help improve physical functions, improve cognitive function, reduce risk of falling, and improve quality of life in older adults. Increasing physical activity in older adults can also reduce economic costs related to direct costs from medical care use and indirect costs from productivity loss and workers’ compensation.

Texercise Select is a community-based health promotion program shown to improve functional health, physical activity, nutritional habits, and quality of life among older adults. This program includes 10 weeks of interactive classes that improve participants’ knowledge about the value of physical activity and nutrition. For physical activity, sessions are 30-45 minutes of exercise and focused on building endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility. For nutrition, sessions focuses on topics such as incorporation of fruits and vegetables, portion control, and healthy cooking. After an analysis of this program, it was shown that participants (average age of 75) had a significant increase in their self-rated health. Physical activity days, fruit/vegetable servings, and daily water intake all increased following the program. This shows that community-based health promotion programs can be very effective and are extremely beneficial to the health of older adults.

 

 

Akanni, O., Smith, M. L., & Ory, M. G. (2017). Cost-Effectiveness of a Community Exercise and Nutrition Program for Older Adults: Texercise Select. International Journal Of Environmental Research & Public Health, 14(5), 1-16. doi:10.3390/ijerph14050545
 
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