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Report: Activity means less nursing home care
October 22, 1997
Web posted at: 5:55 p.m. EDT (2155 GMT)LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- People can live healthier and longer lives by simply walking a dog, maintaining a garden or participating in other physical activities, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests.
Researchers from the University of Southern California studied how preventive occupational therapy affected 361 residents of a federally subsidized apartment building in the Los Angeles area.
As part of the nine-month study, the researchers helped residents -- aged 60 to 89 -- balance work, rest, social life and recreation.
The results suggest that activity makes an older person more independent and less reliant on nursing home care.
"We saw improved health in the ability to function in work and daily activities, in mental and emotional well-being, in vitality and in energy," said USC's Dr. Florence Clark. "We saw a slowing in the decline in areas like physical pain and physical functioning."
Experts in the field, including the director of UCLA's Center on aging, have hailed the study as an example that non-medical interventions can have a profound impact in the quality of life for older people.
One of the study's participants, Margarita Nieves, 69, said the study has reinvigorated her lifestyle. She now walks a third of a mile almost daily and volunteers at a hospital.
"I feel free -- free to walk, free to talk, free to go and do anything I want," she said.
From Correspondent Jennifer Auther
Related sites:
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- Journal of the American Medical Association
- Occupational Therapy Helps Elderly People Lead Healthier Lives - October 22, 1997
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