“We want to help older adults have a positive experience with exercise, so we developed a physical activity programme that specifically targets exercise enjoyment through laughter”, added Greene.
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A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that 26.9% of people aged 65 to 74 years and 35.3% of people aged 75 or more years are not physically active beyond the basic movements needed for daily life activities.
31 million Americans (28%) of those aged 50 or more years are inactive.
The results showed that physical inactivity was higher for women, with nearly 30 percent getting no regular exercise, compared with about 25 percent of men.
One-third of Hispanics and blacks were inactive (32.7 and 33.1 percent, respectively), compared with 26.2 percent of whites and 27.1 percent of people in other racial and ethnic groups.
When surveyed about their satisfaction with the program, 96.2 percent found laughter to be an enjoyable addition to a traditional exercise program, 88.9 percent said laughter helped make exercise more accessible and 88.9 percent reported the program enhanced their motivation to participate in other exercise classes or activities.
Geographically, inactivity levels were highest in the South, followed by the Midwest and then the Northeast. Inactivity was lowest in the West (23.1%); by states and DC, the percentage of inactivity ranged from 17.9% in Colorado to 38.8% in Arkansas; and the percentage of inactivity decreased as education increased and also increased as weight status increased.
“Adults benefit from any amount of physical activity”, said Janet E. Fulton, Ph.D., chief of CDC’s Physical Activity and Health Branch and one of the authors of the report.
Regular physical activity also reduces the impact of age-related declines in aerobic endurance, the incidence of falls and hip fracture and the degenerative loss of muscle mass, quality and strength.
The older Americans get, the less exercise they get, according to the study.
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The study found significant improvements among participants in mental health, aerobic endurance and outcome expectations for exercise (for example, perceived benefit of exercise participation), based on assessments completed by the participants. People who do not exercise are twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who engage in routine physical activity.
