The Residents in Action Trial will promote walking amongst older people living in Amana Living retirement villages. The goal is to encourage greater physical activity, reduce sitting, and enhance mental health among residents.
Researchers from Curtin University will recruit active residents as ambassadors for the project and train them in using motivation techniques to support their peers. It is hoped this approach will ensure the residents learn skills they can use to sustain an active and healthy life over the longer term.
Project Lead, Associate Professor Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani, from Curtin’s School of Psychology, said older people who are inactive are at higher risk of chronic disease.
“If we can encourage more physical activity with peer support, we can potentially have a significant impact on their health and wellbeing, reduce loneliness, and delay or prevent movement into residential aged care,” Associate Professor Thøgersen-Ntoumani said.
“Based on previous research, we know social support is critical for people who aren’t physically active. We’ll examine how this theory works in a retirement community as well as investigating the impact of the physical environment, such as proximity to parks.”
Mrs Stephanie Buckland, Chief Executive Officer of Amana Living, said it was well documented that remaining active in later life was key to having a healthy mind and body. “This project has the potential to demonstrate how peer support can help older people stay active for longer so the cornerstone of this project is in recruiting ambassadors to motivate their friends,” Mrs Buckland said, “We’re delighted to be working with Curtin University on an initiative that could set the benchmark for retirement communities across Australia."
The Residents in Action Trial; is funded by Healthway and will take place across 14 Amana Living retirement villages over two years. The recruitment of ambassadors begins in September 2016 and will be followed by a series of training workshops before the project commences in April 2017 for four months. Participants will be followed up six months after the trial has ended to establish whether the activity has been sustained.
The project will be completed in partnership with Australian Catholic University and Victoria University.