by Deborah John, Assistant Professor of Physical Education
The life expectancy for humans has nearly doubled over the last century, and by the year 2030, it is estimated that 20 percent of the U.S. population will be 65 years old or older. Research has identified three behavioral factors that have been shown to extend active life expectancy and enhance quality of life: improved nutrition, general daily activity, and regular physical activity across the lifespan. While the importance of individual responsibility for behavioral choices has long been acknowledged, scholars are now focusing on the roles organizations, communities, and public policies can play in supporting healthy active lifestyles.
Rural communities, like those served by Plymouth State University, have both opportunities and challenges for promoting health and physical activity that differ from urban and suburban communities. While rural living is associated with quality of life, access to outdoor recreation, and is inherently more active, the reality is that people living in rural areas have limited access to health care, commercial exercise facilities, and community or corporate physical activity programs. In addition, rural municipalities have fewer resources to support healthy active living. Consequently, people living in rural areas are more prone to develop conditions associated with inactivity, such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, than their urban and suburban neighbors.
Clearly, there is opportunity for progress across all levels. It’s an opportunity for me, a physical activity scholar, and for my students, as future health fitness professionals, to positively impact the health of people and communities.
Since joining the PSU faculty, I have worked with my colleagues in the Department of Health and Human Performance to evaluate our course offerings and initiate academic programs that better prepare students to work with a variety of people, particularly adult populations, across various settings. As a result, two outreach programs—Faculty Staff Fitness and Senior Fitness Testing—have been implemented. Both programs provide controlled environments where students can apply what they’ve learned in the classroom, develop the necessary skills to work with a diverse adult population, and provide a beneficial service to the University and to the community.
Senior Rob Nichols works with PSU staff member Colleen Kenny under the guidance of Deborah John. John Gilbert Fox photo.
Faculty Staff Fitness provides one-on-one and group exercise instruction to PSU employees. Participants are paired with students, seniors in the Physical Education-Applied Health Fitness option, who serve as personal health fitness instructors. The program is supported through donations from the participants, whose generosity not only underwrites the operational costs of the program, but also funds student conference fees and memberships to professional organizations.
Senior Fitness Testing (SFT) is a service-learning activity and required component of Physical Activity and Aging, a course that I developed and teach every fall. Students enrolled in the course learn the science and application of physical activity across the lifespan, focusing on adults and aging processes. In one class, students study function and performance testing methods specific to older adults and practice administering the fitness tests on each other. Once they have mastered these skills, they go out into the community where they organize and administer tests for less active middle-aged adults and all adults who are over 60 years of age. Students use the data that they collect for class projects and presentations, provide feedback to the SFT participants related to their performance, and make recommendations for activities to improve functional fitness, an indicator of independence for
aging adults.
My own research and scholarship plans have expanded to include the diverse personal and environmental factors that impact physical activity behaviors in rural communities. One of my current research projects involves documenting the physical activity life experiences of active older women and men. Working with a local organization of older skiers, we are hoping to learn more about the factors that have contributed to their physically active later years. Student members of the research team help with scheduling, interviewing, transcribing, and coding data. This fall, we will expand the study to look at the relationship between factors influencing activity behaviors across the lifespan and certain aspects of health and fitness in later life with the goal of learning more about physical activity, fitness, and health among active older adults. This information will help guide the development of physical activity-promoting programs for less active older adults in rural communities.
The PEARL Project
Recently, with the help and support of Congressman Paul Hodes, federal funding was secured for a project to identify factors that influence active living in rural communities. The project, titled Partners Enabling Active Rural Living (PEARL), has research aims that include measuring physical activity levels of community members, examining community-level resources, and creating a model for physical activity promotion specific to rural communities. The PEARL project team, comprising faculty and students, will partner with communities in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of physical activity programs to promote health and prevent diseases associated with sedentary lifestyles. Our future plans are to organize and host an annual regional conference on best practices in rural physical activity and wellness promotion for rural organizations (e.g., parks and recreation, town planners, schools, community centers, faith-based organizations, senior centers, private sector clubs/camps).
One primary funding objective of the PEARL grant is to establish the Center for Active Living and Healthy Communities here at PSU. The Center will not only support the work of the PEARL project, it will also serve as a regional center for cross-disciplinary, active living education, research, scholarship, and outreach for rural New Hampshire, and will provide a framework for PSU’s educational, scholarly, and service work in the areas of physical activity and health.
As a physical activity researcher, I am passionate about translational research—translating scientific discoveries into practical applications. I believe that the overarching goals of physical activity scholarship are to support active lifestyles for all people and to assist communities in addressing the physical activity needs of diverse generations. The PEARL project, the Center for Active Living and Healthy Communities, and other efforts are opportunities for PSU’s faculty and students to work together to achieve these goals, translate research findings into practice, and to serve as important regional resources to address healthy, active living for people in rural communities.
Editor’s note: Thank you to the members of Deborah John’s Building Better Bones and Balance class, one of the Faculty Staff Fitness programs, for their cooperation (and sense of humor) during the magazine photo shoot.
