An Approach to Prevent Frailty in Community Dwelling Older Adults: a pilot study performed in Campania region in the framework of the PERSSILAA project.

We developed and tested an innovative physical training method in older adults that embeds the gym program into everyday life in the most conservative way possible. Physical training was included in the activities of local parishes where older women from Southern Italy spend most of their free time and was delivered by trained physical therapists with the support of an ICT tool known as CoCo. 113 older women (aged 72.0 [69.0-75.0] years) noncompliant to conventional exercise programs participated to the study. 57 of them underwent the final anthropometric assessment and 50 the final physical tests. In study completers handgrip strength and physical performance evaluated with the chair-stand, the two minutes step and the chair-sit and -reach tests significantly improved. Quality of life as evaluated with the EuroQol-5dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaire improved as well. In conclusion, a training program designed to minimally impact on life habits of older people is effective in improving fitness in patients noncompliant to other to physical exercise programs.

Rest Rust ! Physical active for active and healthy ageing.

The aim of this paper is to give an insight on how physical activity can be defined, parameterized and measured in older adults and on different options to deal with citizen physical activity promotion at European level. Three relevant aspects are highlighted: When talking about physical activity, two different aspects are often unfairly mixed up: "physical activity" and "physical capacity". Physical activity, is referred to as the level of physical activity someone is actually performing in daily life.Physical capacity is referred to as the maximum physical activity a person can perform.Both physical activity and physical capacity can be expressed in different dimensions such as time, frequency, or type of activity with the consequence that there are many tools and techniques available. In order to support people to choose an appropriate instrument in their everyday practice a list of 9 criteria that are considered important is defined.Older adults score differently across the various physical dimensions, so strategies to promote physical activity should consider individual differences, in order to adapt for these variations.