IN Arkansas, US, researchers developed PUSH – Project Urging Senior Health – to demonstrate the ease of establishing and maintaining senior exercise programmes in the community. Though they regarded PUSH primarily as an outreach programme, the researchers collected data, hoping results would bolster the case for providing exercise services to the elderly.
They monitored 19 participants from the two Arkansas senior centres, conducting physical and mental assessments at the beginning of the programme and then testing again at the end of 10 weeks. The participants ranged in age from 60 to 90 with a significant representation in the older age range of 80 and above.