Providing seniors with tailored physical
activity advice in an approach called the "Green Prescription"
program may be an effective way to help them increase
their exercise levels, according to the results of a New
Zealand study.
The findings suggest that "health and wellbeing
of older people would improve if the Green Prescription
program was used more in general practice," study author
Dr. Ngaire Kerse, of the University of Auckland stated.
"Older people are an increasingly important sector of
our society and health interventions should be offered
to them," Kerse added.
Studies have shown that older people can reduce their
risk of death from all causes, as well as death from cardiovascular
disease, by increasing their levels of physical activity,
regardless of their age, smoking and alcohol habits or
the presence of other chronic disease. Increased physical
activity can also protect older adults against hip fracture
and is associated with better quality of life and well-being.
Furthermore, older adults may be more responsive to their
doctor's advice about increasing their levels of physical
activity and other prevention measures than their younger
counterparts.
Kerse and colleagues investigated the effectiveness of
physical activity counseling among 270 sedentary patients,
aged 65 years or older. The study also included 117 doctors
in the Waikato region of New Zealand.
Some study participants were assigned to a Green Prescription
physical activity intervention group, in which doctors
provided individualized exercise recommendations based
on age, medical condition, capability and everyday activities,
and faxed those recommendations to trained exercise specialists.
The seniors then received follow-up telephone calls from
the specialists over a three-month period, in addition
to quarterly written material and newsletters. The other
study participants were assigned to usual care from their
physicians.
Only about three percent of New Zealanders each year
receive a Green Prescription from their physician, the
researchers note.
They found that seniors assigned to the Green Prescription
group reported spending about 40 additional minutes per
week engaged in leisure time moderate and vigorous activity
after the year-long follow-up, compared with seniors in
the usual care group, Kerse and colleagues report in the
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The Green
Prescription group also burned nearly three more kilocalories
per kilogram each week than their peers did, the report
indicates.
What's more, seniors who participated in the Green Prescription
intervention also exhibited improvements in measures of
vitality and general health, and experienced fewer hospitalizations
than did seniors in the comparison group.
"This report should reinforce efforts to emphasize activity
to older people," Kerse and colleagues write.
"Older people are just as responsive to activity programs
as younger groups and are able to make meaningful increases
in their level of activity relatively easily," Kerse stated.
Whether the findings can be generalized to other countries
is not known, but "it may be possible to implement a similar
activity-promotion program" in the United States, for
example, where comparable services are available through
large health maintenance organizations, the researcher
note.
SOURCE: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, November
2005.
