Older Adults - Publications & Resources

Glasgow Caledonian University has teamed up with the BHF National Centre for Physical Activity and Health at Loughborough University to stage the 8th ISAPA World Congress on Active Ageing. This Congress will attract a world-wide community of researchers, policy makers and practitioners, and is the principal professional meeting in the world that strives to disseminate information about the physical activity needs of older people. The Congress will be held in Glasgow on the 13th - 17th of August 2012.

The 8th World Congress programme will be designed to celebrate the diversity of ageing and in particular, will focus upon the needs of the oldest and frailest population, often excluded from both research and practice. This population group benefits immensely from inclusion in physical activity in terms of quality of life, social isolation and symptoms of long term conditions. The frail and those with long term conditions find access to and inclusion in exercise opportunities more challenging. Uptake and adherence is often poor and knowledge about the needs, motivators and barriers to physical activity in patient populations is a growing area of interest.

To download the 1st edition of the World Congress on Active Ageing newsletter, click here . A further issue of the newsletter with an update on progress is due in Spring/Summer 2010.

To join the WCAA mailing list and receiving further information on the World Congress on Active Ageing in 2012 click here

Active for Later Life

The Active for Later Life resource, developed by the BHF National Centre for Physical Activity and Health (in partnership with the British Heart Foundation), aims to help all those involved in developing physical activity programmes for older people of all ages and abilities. Originally published in 2003, the Active for Later Life resource has now been updated and extended to provide a new web based resource which includes:

Presentations to complement the resource can be downloaded below

Who is this for ?

Active for Later Life has been designed for a wide range of national and local agencies with the potential to work with older people to promote physical activity. These include:

• health promotion managers
• primary health care including primary care trusts
• local authority departments (e.g. leisure and recreation services,
social services and adult education)
• the independent (voluntary and private) sectors, including the
exercise and fitness industry
• national and local branches of age-related agencies
• residential and caring services, e.g. day centres and nursing homes
• community groups and organisations involved with older people.

The Active for Later Life resource can be used:

as an advocacy tool to strengthen the case for investing in the promotion of physical activity with people in later life
as a strategic planning tool to assist with commissioning, planning and delivering health, social care and public services for people in later life that include promoting physical activity
as a practical action planning tool to assist with developing physical activity policies and programmes for people in later life
as a workforce development tool to raise awareness and inform practice for a range of practitioners who contribute to health, social care, public, private and voluntary services for people in later life

Updating the Active for Later Life Resource
Over the next 12 months the BHFNC will continue to update and add to the Active for Later Life Resource. If there are topics and information that you would like to see included, please contact us at: bhfnc@lboro.ac.uk

Active for Later Life in Scotland
A separate and complimentary resource has been produced for those working in Scotland and can be accessed at www.healthscotland.com/topics/stages/healthy-ageing/index.aspx

Dissemination Events
The BHFNC have completed a series of dissemination events across England to provide professionals with the opportunity to explore the resource and its contents in more detail. Its is now possible to download a summary of these seminars with links to the PowerPoint presentations made:

Seminar summary and PowerPoint presentations

New Guidelines on Physical Activity and Older Adults

These guidelines have been drafted to assist the work of those in the position to promote physical activity and well being with all older people. They do not provide exercise recommendations relating to specific diseases and conditions associated with ageing or on exercise prescriptions for individuals. Sources of such recommendations are included in the appendices to this document and included in the revised Active for Later life Resource

In particular the Guidelines highlight

1. Current guidance on appropriate physical activity recommendations for the older person

2. Guidance on translating evidence on promoting physical activity with older people into practice

The use of evidence

Decisions about policy and practice in the public sector are increasingly driven by consideration of the best available evidence. The process of drawing together, analysing and synthesising evidence from research is a central principle of evidence-based practice. Typically, the process of reviewing an area of practice or intervention will include the production of a systematic review of effectiveness, a meta-analysis or some other review level synthesis and interpretation of evidence from research e.g. Health Development Agency (2005) and the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (2006).

More recently, there has been a move towards more inclusive summaries of evidence (e.g. King et al 1998, DOH 2006) including those from locally developed practice (including components of good practice) and in particular using such information to fill some of the gaps in evidence where systematic reviews have left incomplete guidance for health and other professionals.

These guidelines have drawn upon a range of sources of evidence and have been designed to assist professionals answer the questions:

1. Do we know what works? and 2. How can I use this evidence to inform my planning?

Download a copy of the guidelines here

BHFNC Summary of the International Council on Active Ageing Annual Conference

This summary of the 2008 International Council on Active Ageing conference was written by Bob Laventure (BHF National Centre for Physical Activity and Health and Later Life Training Ltd) and Claudine Aherne (Vida Wellness).

Download the summary here

In addition to the resources and publications produced by the BHF and BHFNC this section contains details of relevant resources and publications produced by external agencies that are useful to professionals working in physical activity for older adults. It will also be updated regularly as new resources become available.

Health Survey for England 2005 - Health of Older People

The Health Survey for England 2005 published on 23 March 2007 focuses on the health of older adults aged 65 years and over. The full report consists of five volumes, the first four present the findings on health and older adults which include:

1. General health and function

2. Chronic diseases

3. Social capital and health

4. Mental health and wellbeing

The fifth volume gives details about the survey methodology, design and response.

The survey found that more than half of the participants aged 65 years and over said they were in 'good' or 'very good' health. Both men and women (71%) reported longstanding illnesses, 42% of men and 46% of women stated that their illness limited their activities in some way. The most commonly reported longstanding illnesses reported were musculoskeletal and heart and circulatory diseases. The rate of illnesses increased with age in both sexes.

Objective measurements were recorded to provide information on physical performance. Grip strength was measured to predict upper body strength and lower limb strength was assessed by measuring walking speed, balance tests and chair raises. The mean grip strength declined with age in both sexes. It was also noted that the women who had reported having bad health also had below median maximum grip strength compared to those women who reported having good or very good health. It was found that 14% of men and 25% of women were classified as 'walking impaired' with a walking speed of less that 0.5 meters per second. Walking ability declined with age with 36% of men and 56% of women aged 85 years and over having difficulty walking. The ability to balance also decreased with age as did the ability to get out a chair (without using their arms). More men were able to complete both the balance and chair raise tests than women.

The mean body mass index (BMI) was almost the same for men (27.5 kg/m 2 ) and women (27.7 kg/m 2 ) aged 65 years and over. It was reported that 72% of men and 68% of women were overweight or obese. A greater percentage of men were over weight than women (47% vs 39% respectively) however more women were obese (28% vs 24% respectively).

To download a copy of the HSE 2005 key findings click on the link below:

http://www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/hseolder/summkeyfind/file

Each volume of the HSE can be accessed by clicking on the link below:

http://www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/hseolder

Welcome Back to Fitness, International Council for Active Ageing

The International Council for Active Aging (ICAA) has produced a toolkit, designed to help older adults initiate or return to a physical activity or fitness programme. The toolkit, entitled ‘Welcome back to fitness’, includes advice on the following topics:

Questions to ask your doctor about exercising
Tips on how to become more active in 2006
Fitness and wellness facility locator (Over 2,000 locations)
Age-friendly fitness facility checklist
Personal trainer checklist
Age-friendly equipment features
Preferred vendor guide
Health tips: how to get started, choosing appropriate footwear, walking for health, strength training, balance training, self-assessment tools, tracking your progress, other useful tools, programmes, guidelines and position statements.

To access the toolkit, click on www.icaa.cc/welcomeback.htm

Staying Steady, Help the Aged

Help the Aged have produced a new leaflet Staying Steady which offers practical advice to help prevent falling for everyone whether they are fit, active, frail or anxious about falling. It also gives advice on strength and balance, medicine management, living environments and what to do if you fall. In addition the leaflet contains examples of exercises to strengthen the muscles of your legs and body and to improve your coordination and balance. The leaflet is available free of charge from Help the Aged.

For more information please visit
www.helptheaged.org.uk/AdviceInfo/InfoPoint/_default.htm

EUNAAPA Report on UK Work Package 6

In April 2008 the BHF National Centre hosted an invitation seminar bringing together some 30 UK experts on physical activity and older people as the focal point of the European Network for Action on Ageing and Physical Activity (EUNAAPA) Work Package 6 programme.

The Purpose of the Work Package 6 Workshop meeting was four-fold:

To enable the EUNAAPA UK partners to engage relevant national and local policy makers, physical activity programme and promotion experts (including the WP 5 experts) in a discourse on the promotion of physical activity for older people
To disseminate the findings of Work Package 5(WP5) and to present, and seek comment on, the UK WP5 recommendations.
To acknowledge the contributions of the UK physical activity experts, programme directors and promotion specialists to the EUNAAPA WP4, WP5 and WP6 projects and, also, the collaboration of The British Heart Foundation National Centre on both WP5 and Work Package 6.
To propose a UK implementation strategy for the future that builds on the WP5 and WP6 findings and recommendations.

To access the EUNAAPA Work package 6 final report click here

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