Rest Rust ! Physical active for active and healthy ageing.

The aim of this paper is to give an insight on how physical activity can be defined, parameterized and measured in older adults and on different options to deal with citizen physical activity promotion at European level. Three relevant aspects are highlighted: When talking about physical activity, two different aspects are often unfairly mixed up: “physical activity” and “physical capacity”. Physical activity, is referred to as the level of physical activity someone is actually performing in daily life. Physical capacity is referred to as the maximum physical activity a person can perform. Both physical activity and physical capacity can be expressed in different dimensions such as time, frequency, or type of activity with the consequence that there are many tools and techniques available. In order to support people to choose an appropriate instrument in their everyday practice a list of 9 criteria that are considered important is defined. Older adults score differently across the various physical dimensions, so strategies to promote physical activity should consider individual differences, in order to adapt for these variations. Keywords: physical activity, physical capacity, older adults I. THE IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN TO RELATION ACTIVE AND HEALTHY AGEING Demographic ageing is a global trend. In the European Union, the number of people aged 65+ will almost double over the next 50 years, from 85 million in 2008 to 151 million in 2060. Among older adults, frailty is highly prevalent and constitutes a major health problem. Frail individuals are vulnerable and at high risk of adverse health outcomes. They have functional impairments which often result in falls, immobility and confusion. People affected by frailty are key community resource users, such as, hospitals and long-term care institutions [1]. Adopting a healthy lifestyle, is considered to be one of the key aspects to help older adults to improve their functional level and delay frailty. Although there is not a single clear definition a “healthy lifestyle”, it can be considered the steps, actions and strategies an individual puts in place to achieve optimum health. Several advantages of becoming physically active are currently acknowledged. Being physically active along with healthy eating, emotional and spiritual wellness are generally considered relevant aspect of health. Thus increasing physical activity is a potential important strategy to avoid disease and disability, maintain physical and cognitive function and engagement in social and productive activities all of which contribute for a successful aging among older adults [2]. Regular physical activity has been shown to be successful against various components of frailty in older people of both sexes, including functional impairment, cognitive and depressive performance [3], therefor ongoing participation in physical activity is important and necessary for older people [4,5]. Despite these many well-known benefits of physical activity, studies have also demonstrated that the vast majority of older adults are physically inactive and that the prevalence of inactivity increases with the advance of age [6–8]. As a consequence, there is an increasing focus on studies and initiatives that develop successful strategies to support older adults to get physically active. Both literature, and commitments brought together within the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Aging (EIP-AHA), show that these studies and initiatives can be roughly distinguished in two types of approaches: Those that focus on getting insight in the level of physical activities of general older adults or in specific sub-groups with chronic diseases. These provide insight on what exactly is the physical activity in older adults or sub-groups, the variability, its deficit and consequences. Increasing this knowledge is considered to be an important first step to define what successful strategies may be used to increase physical activity level in this population. Those that focus on the development and evaluation of interventions aimed at promoting physical activity either using more standard forms such as, face to face exercise classes or individual therapy, or other alternative interventions focusing on enhancing self management, home based or using new technologies used to support and increase physical activity in older adults or among these in specific subgroups. Despite the growing attention to this aspect in elderly, it is still very difficult for professionals working in this field, to have access to a good overview to support decisions on what instruments, type of exercises or strategies to use in either research or daily practice. The definition of physical activity itself is another difficulty, once across studies or initiatives different concepts are being used. In addition, physical activity is being expressed in a variety of parameters and assessed with different tools and instruments. Also, different standards of adequate levels of physical activity in older adults are referred. The aim of this paper is to give clinicians, researchers and policy makers more insight in how physical activity can be defined, measured and parameterized in older adults and give some insights on how to deal with physical activity promotion among elderly citizens at a European level.