Friday, October 17, 2008

Health Messages Reach Elders At Senior Centers

“Community-based senior centers may be a good venue for promoting lifestyle changes to improve the health of senior citizens, researchers report. They suggest minority older adults may particularly benefit from such interventions. Dr. Senaida Fernandez and colleagues recruited 65 mostly African-American senior citizens with high blood pressure at one of six community-based senior centers in New York City. The participants were an average of 72 years old; 35 attended 6 weekly, plus 2 monthly group sessions that discussed the health benefits of altering their diet, exercising and adhering to blood pressure lowering medication regimens. The other 30 elders were wait-listed for this program. After participating in blood pressure lowering education sessions over a 14-week period, the intervention group had statistically significant lower blood pressure readings compared with reading at the beginning of the study, the investigators note in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.”

http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2008/10/16/eline/links/20081016elin001.html

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