Active for Life - Increasing Physical Activity Levels in Adults Age 50 and Older!

Tools & Tips

Introduction to Health Promotion Programs for Older Adults Series
These modules are designed primarily for aging services providers, but if you work in a public health or human services agency, volunteer in a health promotion program, or a student in gerontology or a health discipline, these modules can be useful training for you, too. To access, click here. Scroll to the bottom of the new window and click on "Continue on to the Main Menu" to enter the modules.

Make Every Month “Heart Month”
The American Heart Association offers several fitness programs that can help adults increase their activity levels. Information on these and other programs is available at http://www.Americanheart.org.

Choose To Move is a free 12-week physical activity program for women. It shows women how to get active, eat healthfully and love their heart in just 12 weeks.
Start! is the American Heart Association movement calling on all Americans and their employers to live longer, more heart-healthy lives through walking and other healthy habits.

The Reference Guide of Physical Activity Programs for Older Adults
This resource for planning interventions provides information on 17 physical activity programs that could be used with older adults having healthy to frail functional status. All of the programs contain physical activity components that might achieve important benefits for all older adults with diabetes. It is available from the CDC at http://www.cdc.gov:80/diabetes/pubs/refguide_physactivity.htm.

Health, United States, 2007
Health, United States, 2007 is a compilation of more than 150 health tables prepared by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. The report also contains a special section focusing on access to care, which shows that nearly 20 percent of adults reported that they needed and did not receive one or more of these services in the past year – medical care, prescription medicines, mental health care, dental care, or eyeglasses – because they could not afford them. The publication is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus.htm.

Is My Community Elder Friendly?
The Elderberry Institute offers a two-page questionnaire, Is My Community Elder Friendly? that will score a community based on a series of graded questions. Questions are grouped under the following topics: housing, transportation, accessibility, services, work, shopping, social/cultural, and values. The questionnaire is available at http://www.elderberry.org.

Walkability Survey
Footloose and Fancy Free: A Field Survey of Walkable Urban Places in the Top 30 U.S. Metropolitan Areas, available from The Brookings Institution, is a field survey that attempts to identify the number and location of ''regional-serving'' walkable urban places in the 30 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., where 138 million, or 46 percent, of the U.S. population lives. Read more or download the complete document at http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2007/1128_walkableurbanism_leinberger.aspx.

Guide Helps Older Adults Find Health Information Online
Health issues are a vital concern for older adults, and surveys show that most of those who go online search for health and medical information. However, since only 34 percent of people age 65 and older are online, the majority of older adults are missing out on valuable health information. To broaden the numbers of older adults able to search for and find reliable health information online, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) has developed a free training curriculum for those who teach and work with older adults. This Toolkit for Trainers is now available at http://www.NIHSeniorHealth.gov, a Web site developed by the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine.

Getting Outside in Winter
If your clients or patients complain about limited physical activity options during the cold months, here’s an innovative tool to help. The National Wildlife Federation and NatureFind™ offer a quick way to find green places in your community. You plug in your zip code and NatureFind will display a list of close-by wild places including a Web link to each locale, the distance from your house, and the recreational opportunities available at each location. The National Wildlife Federation’s Green Hour™ Web site provides suggestions for things to do including animal tracking, catching snowflakes, filling bird feeders and watching for feathered friends to visit, or organizing a winter scavenger hunt. Many of these activities are as close as your own back door. http://www.GreenHour.org

Smart Growth and Active Aging
The Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at North Dakota State University released a report, Neighborhood Design and Aging: An Empirical Analysis in Northern California, that explores the residential and travel choices for older adults. The report is available at http://www.trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=8344.

Women and Environmental Health
The US EPA Aging Initiative has released a fact sheet on Women and Environmental Health. Heart disease is the number one killer of women over 65 years of age. For those with cardiovascular disease, air pollution can cause sudden variations or an increase in heart rate. Air pollution can also worsen coronary atherosclerosis or chronic heart conditions which can result in a heart attack, especially among post menopausal women. The fact sheet offers suggestions on how to reduce environmental hazards. It can be ordered online at http://www.epa.gov/aging/resources/factsheets/order.htm or downloaded at http://www.epa.gov/aging/resources/factsheets/weh_english_2007_10.pdf.