The Importance Of Physical Activity In Daily Life

Physical activity is an important function in everyday life because it promotes healthy living and reduces the risk of developing many lifelong illnesses. Physical activity is especially important in elderly individuals because it decreases the amount of fall risk patients, due to muscle strength and increased balance. This topic is important within the context of nursing because starting and maintaining exercise patterns in elderly has many positive outcomes. These positive outcomes have been summarized in seven articles below that involve increased strength, increased balance, increased cognitive functioning and all round increased health. Exercise in older patients is not as common due to many different reasons. There is also an article pertaining to ways to motivate elderly to exercise and continue exercising. Working with patients to increase activity programs in hospitals will result in improved quality of life.

(You need to state what article, I have no idea where this information is coming from) In this article a study was done based on nineteen participants that all have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease aged seventy four to eighty nine. Fall risks and low strength abilities are both common in these patients. Therefore, physiotherapists worked together to make a six month program based on walking, strengthening and balance. The study involved that all patients give a baseline in each area of these and also a falls risk assessment that they compared to the final results. Only eleven out of the nineteen finished this program due to deaths, moving away and dropping out, but major improvements were shown in results of those who did fully complete the program. On completion all results showed improvement in every area,...

... middle of paper ...

...tia. Studies in this article have shown that patients with early Alzheimer’s who exercise regularly will have less brain deterioration, then the less active Alzheimer’s patients. These articles have proven that not only does exercise help physically with elderly patients but also mentally.

The last theme I found in these articles was strategies used to motivate and create exercise programs for different patients. The first article was a study done based on how physiotherapists create programs. The evidence showed that all physiotherapists preferred using an individual based exercise plan for patients. This overlapped evidence with my second article that was primarily based on strategies to convince and maintain elderly participation. The evidence in this article also stated that individualized care plans need to be made or the patient will become un-interested.