Towards Healthy Aging with Physical Activity and Nutrition

Abstract

Background. Indonesia has become the country with the highest elderly population in Southeast Asia which around 27 million people within 2020. Demographic bonus, where the productive age is higher than the non-productive age, should be optimized so that it becomes an opportunity to decrease the dependency ratio of the elderly over 65 years. However, increasing life expectancy has other implications which as the increase in health problems associated with the aging process, including the emergence of degenerative diseases. The concept of healthy aging formed due to the increase of public awareness to live within quality life and maintaining a healthy lifestyle through physical activity and good nutrition. Healthy aging is the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age. Lifestyle improvement from the early stage will have a better effect on a person's lifelong health. Unfortunately, it is not widely known by the public, so awareness is not yet evident and benefits cannot be obtained optimally.Objectives. Healthy aging is the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age. The aim of this review is to raise awareness among the adult age group about the important role of physical activity and nutrition in achieving a healthy aging condition.Discussion. American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend adults aged 18–65 year to participate in moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity for a minimum of 30 minutes on five days per week, or vigorous-intensity aerobic activity for a minimum of 20 minutes on three days per week. Moreover, recent WHO (2020) guideline towards physical activity and sedentary behavior recommend all adults to have moderate-intensity for 150 – 300 min or vigorous-intensity for 75 – 150 min per week. But this recommendation has not been able to reduce physical inactivity number in Indonesian society, especially adult and senior adult. There are some nutrition elements related to mobility health, mainly are protein, vitamin D, calcium, antioxidant and omega-3, and many studies report that Indonesian adults suffer deficiencies on these nutrition elements and cause health problems related to mobility. Health interventions should involved many stakeholders, e.g government, private sectors, NGO, mass media, and many more.Conclusions: The concept of healthy aging and interventions related to this need to be recognized and implemented as early as possible to get optimal results, and preferably starting from adulthood. Health interventions carried out must be holistic and synergize between physical activity, nutrition, mental health and other factors that play a role. A community-based approach is the easiest and fastest way to change mindsets and behavior patterns, and can be implemented in the work environment or other communities.

Physical activity and subjective well-being in old age in Indonesia

“…However, being healthy is all about the key success of these individuals. Corroborated with this later evidence, it is predictable that if people can experience these extra years of life in good health especially living in a supportive environment, their ability to perform things they value would be a little different from the younger person (Langhammer, Bergland, & Rydwik, 2018;Mirtha et al, 2021). Sedentary lifestyles are common in many parts of the world, including Indonesia (Zeng et al, 2017).…”

“…Reaching this age of life in the wake of extending life expectancy is to promote a high health-related quality of life into old age as a central concern for many. As asserted by (Mirtha, Tulaar, & Pramantara, 2021), a longer life brings opportunities not only for older individuals and their families but rather than to the societies as a whole. These so-called additional years in the life shelf of humans may provide the chance to contribute in many ways to the families and communities as well.…”

“…We recall for instance that in the United stated, over 60% of the elderly and are not regularly involved in such activities wherein other developed countries, 30% up to 80% of the elderly are physical inactivity (Van der Bij et al, 2002). For World Health Organization in its newest guideline for physical activity and sedentary behavior suggested that all adults have moderate-intensity for 150-300 min or vigorous-intensity for 75-150 min per week (Mirtha et al, 2021). However, it has been reported by Indonesian Basic Health Research henceforth (RISKESDAS) 2018 that the proportion of low physical activity (less than 150 minutes per week) in Indonesia was estimated at 33,5% with the highest number in Jakarta (47,8%) and the lowest in Bali (26%).…”