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. 2013 Oct;32(7):889-901.
doi: 10.1177/0733464812440043. Epub 2012 Apr 18.

Be Well: results of a nutrition, exercise, and weight management intervention among at-risk older adults

Alexis Coulourides Kogan  1 , Jorge Gonzalez, Bonita Hart, Skip Halloran, Brenda Thomason, Morgan Levine, Susan Enguidanos
Affiliations

Be Well: results of a nutrition, exercise, and weight management intervention among at-risk older adults

Alexis Coulourides Kogan et al. J Appl Gerontol. 2013 Oct.

Abstract

The objective of this article is to test the effectiveness of a multifaceted exercise and nutritional education intervention for chronically ill, community-dwelling older adults. A pre/post cohort design was implemented with measures of physical activity, fitness, depression, and anthropometry collected via 4-month in-person interview and telephone follow-up. The study was conducted at two community-based senior centers in the Los Angeles area and participants (n=62) were older adults aged 60 or older, with multiple chronic conditions, with one or more emergency department visits or hospital admissions in the previous 6 months, and at nutritionally moderate to high risk. The intervention was a fitness program providing nutritional counseling, low-impact exercise, and weight management. Results revealed significant improvements for hours of weekly exercise (Z = -4.3, p < .001), daily walking distance (Z = -5.7, p < .001), performance on fitness tests, depression (Z = 3.9, p < .001), and body measurements were observed. Findings speak to the healthy benefits of exercise and good nutrition as possible alternatives or adjuncts to pharmacotherapy for weight loss and depression.

Keywords: education; exercise; nutrition; older adults; weight loss.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Changes in participants’ body measurements. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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