Making the Case
According to the World Health Organization (1997), sedentary living is the greatest health risk for older adults. This fact emphasizes the importance of encouraging and enabling older adults to be physically active as they age.
It’s essential for decision makers, practitioners and community leaders to work with older adults to create healthy rural communities that:
-
Ensure the physical environment enables older adults to be physically active.
-
Make a range of services available, so that older adults can remain active.
-
Encourage older adults to play an active role in mentoring young people, maintaining their work or volunteer activities and continuing to be active participants in their communities.
Physical activity is key to healthy, active aging.