Promotion of Healthy Aging Within a Community Center Through Behavior Change: Health and Fitness Findings From the AgeWell Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to determine if behavior change through individual goal setting (GS) could promote healthy aging, including health and fitness benefits in older adults who attended a community “AgeWell” Center for 12 months. Seventy-five older adults were randomly allocated to either a control or a GS group. Health outcomes were measured at baseline and after 12 months of the participants’ having access to the exception of Agewell Center facilities. The findings demonstrate that participation in the Center in itself was beneficial, with improved body composition and reduced cardiovascular risk in both groups (p < .05), and that this kind of community-based resource offers valuable potential for promoting protective behaviors and reducing health risk. However, a specific focus on identifying individual behavior change goals was required in order to achieve increased activity engagement (p < .05) and to bring about more substantial improvements in a range of health, diet, and physical function measures (p < .05).

Healthy lifestyle and recommendations in health care among hypertensive and diabetic patients in Brazil, 2019

“…Studies from several countries have shown the importance of adopting healthy lifestyles, throughout life, aiming at a healthy aging process [7][8][9] . Studies in France 10 and in the United RESUMO: Objetivo: Estimar as prevalências dos comportamentos saudáveis entre os indivíduos de 30 anos ou mais com diagnóstico de hipertensão arterial e diabetes mellitus utilizando as informações da Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde, 2019.…”

“…Resultados: Foram analisados 69.285 indivíduos com 30 anos ou mais. Comparados aos indivíduos sem doença crônica não transmissível, as prevalências de consumo de frutas e hortaliças ≥5 dias na semana foram significativamente maiores entre os hipertensos, 39,9% (intervalo de confiança -IC95% 38,8-41,0) e diabéticos, 42,8% (IC95% 40,9). Contudo, as de não ter consumido alimento ultraprocessado foram baixas, 19,7% (IC95% 18,9-20,6) e 21,9% (IC95% 20,3-23,5), respectivamente.…”