PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS
Interventions
As care providers for older adults, nurses are in a position to assist older adults who are obese in adopting changes to promote a healthier lifestyle. The primary goal is to achieve sustained lifestyle changes through dietary modifications, exercise, and use of community supports. Strategies that promote lifestyle modifications include helping older adults who are obese to overcome barriers related to dietary changes and physical activity. Two well-developed programs, as well as general considerations to facilitate safe dietary changes and safe increases in physical activity, will be discussed below.
Prevention
A public health approach to develop population-based strategies for the prevention of excess weight is important. The development and implementation of obesity prevention strategies should target factors contributing to obesity, should target barriers to lifestyle change at personal, environmental and socioeconomic levels, and actively involve different levels of stakeholders and other major parties.
Policy #1
There are a wide range of policy areas that could influence the food environments. These areas include food policies, mandatory nutrition panels on the formulation and reformulation of manufactured foods, implementation of food and nutrition labeling, and restricting marketing and advertising bans of unhealthy foods. For instance, some studies have demonstrated that food prices have a marked influence on food-buying behavior. A small study was done in a cafeteria setting and was designed to look at the effects of availability and price on the consumption of fruit and salad. It was shown that increasing variety and reducing price by half roughly tripled consumption of both food items, whereas returning price and availability to the original environmental conditions brought consumption back to its original levels. A larger study designed to look at the effects of health education and pricing on the consumption of vending machine snacks also showed similar results.
Policy #2
Policy areas influencing physical activity environments include urban planning policies, transport policies and organizational policies on the provision of facilities for physical activity. A recent review by Sallis and Glanz (2009) summarized the impact of physical activity and food environments as solutions to the obesity epidemic. Living in walkable communities and having parks and other recreation facilities nearby were consistently associated with higher levels of physical activity in youth, adults, and older adults. Better school design, such as including basketball hoops and having a large school grounds, and better building design, such as signs promoting stair use and more convenient access to stairs than to elevators were associated with higher levels of physical activity in youth, adults and older adults.
As care providers for older adults, nurses are in a position to assist older adults who are obese in adopting changes to promote a healthier lifestyle. The primary goal is to achieve sustained lifestyle changes through dietary modifications, exercise, and use of community supports. Strategies that promote lifestyle modifications include helping older adults who are obese to overcome barriers related to dietary changes and physical activity. Two well-developed programs, as well as general considerations to facilitate safe dietary changes and safe increases in physical activity, will be discussed below.
Prevention
A public health approach to develop population-based strategies for the prevention of excess weight is important. The development and implementation of obesity prevention strategies should target factors contributing to obesity, should target barriers to lifestyle change at personal, environmental and socioeconomic levels, and actively involve different levels of stakeholders and other major parties.
Policy #1
There are a wide range of policy areas that could influence the food environments. These areas include food policies, mandatory nutrition panels on the formulation and reformulation of manufactured foods, implementation of food and nutrition labeling, and restricting marketing and advertising bans of unhealthy foods. For instance, some studies have demonstrated that food prices have a marked influence on food-buying behavior. A small study was done in a cafeteria setting and was designed to look at the effects of availability and price on the consumption of fruit and salad. It was shown that increasing variety and reducing price by half roughly tripled consumption of both food items, whereas returning price and availability to the original environmental conditions brought consumption back to its original levels. A larger study designed to look at the effects of health education and pricing on the consumption of vending machine snacks also showed similar results.
Policy #2
Policy areas influencing physical activity environments include urban planning policies, transport policies and organizational policies on the provision of facilities for physical activity. A recent review by Sallis and Glanz (2009) summarized the impact of physical activity and food environments as solutions to the obesity epidemic. Living in walkable communities and having parks and other recreation facilities nearby were consistently associated with higher levels of physical activity in youth, adults, and older adults. Better school design, such as including basketball hoops and having a large school grounds, and better building design, such as signs promoting stair use and more convenient access to stairs than to elevators were associated with higher levels of physical activity in youth, adults and older adults.