Clearinghouse: Exercise and Aging
Clearinghouse Homepage
Title: Physical activity and Aging: Implications for Health and Quality of Life in Older Persons
URL: http://www.fitness.gov/digest_dec1998.htm
Sponsor: The site is sponsored by the United States Governments' Health and Human Services Sector. The subcategory is The Presidents Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Sources are identified throughout the article and cited at the end so the average user can go directly to books and publications that have contributed to the articles content.
Author/ Credentials: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (government sites do not list an author)
Date Posted: 10/15/2004
Description of Site: This site is sponsored by the United States Governments' Health and Human Services sector. The page is very well organized and easy to understand. It covers three aspects of a complete exercise program. It provides comprehensive information on each individual subject that pertains to exercise in old age. Tables are used in strategic parts of the article to enhance the readers understanding of each subject. Bullet points and specific headings contained in the tables makes it easy for you to process and remember information that may have been lost when read in paragraph form. In the left side toolbar at the top of the webpage the site provides several related and resource links where the reader can further explore information pertaining to the subject. These include auxiliary government reports, federal publications, and additional digests published by The Presidential Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
Reviewed by: Zachary Brethauer from Dr. Dan Lago's Spring 2006 HDFS 129 class.
Title: Physical Activity and Older Americans
URL: http://www.ahrq.gov/ppip/activity.htm
Sponsor: The site is sponsored by the United States Governments' Health and Human Services Sector. (Internet Citation) Physical Activity and Older Americans: Benefits and Strategies. June 2002. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Centers for Disease Control. http://www.ahrq.gov/ppip/activity.htm
Author/ Credentials: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (Government sites do not list an author)
Date Posted: June 2002
Description: This site was from the Health and Human Services sector of the United States Government. They have the most comprehensive, straight forward, and focused information out of the sites that I researched. This site It is important to have this site in the collection because reaching full knowledge of a subject entails you know the good and bad of your actions. It uses rock solid references with links to the sources web page located at the bottom of the article. Highlighted links in the articles text, when double clicked on, will pull up correlating tables and graphs that deal with things such as, annual medical costs of active and inactive women over forty-five years old without physical limitations, physical inactivity for U.S. men and women, percentage of obese, overweight, and healthy weight adults over the age of sixty.
Reviewed by: Zachary Brethauer Dr. Dan Lago's Spring 2006 HDFS 129 class.
Title: American Family Physician
URL: http://www.aafp.org/afp/20020201/419.html
Sponsor: The site is a peer-reviewed journal of the American Academy of Physicians. Since the site represents a non-profit organization no commercial influence is present. It is one of the largest medical organizations representing more than 94,000 family physicians, medical residents, and medical students.
Author credentials: ROBERT J. NIED, M.D., Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, BARRY FRANKLIN, PH.D., William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan
Date posted: February 1, 2002
Description of site: The AAFP site is generalized by its mission statement, "The mission of the AAFP is to improve the health of patients, families, and communities by serving the needs of members with professionalism and creativity". The main article found when you type in the URL is called, "Promoting and Prescribing Exercise for the Elderly." It goes in to considerable depth on exercise programs that include strength, cardiovascular, and flexibility training. Besides the particular article I chose they have twenty-seven auxiliary articles that relate to exercise and twelve that deal with health promotion. A citation link is attached to every article designating their validity. Articles are very easy to comprehend providing numerous graphs and tables that characterize the written information. The graphs and information are directly correlated into case studies so the average reader can better understand the information through a real-life example.
Reviewed by: Zachary Brethauer Dr. Dan Lago's Spring 2006 HDFS 129 class.
Title: Physical Activity
URL: http://www.aarp.org/health/fitness/
Sponsor: The American Association of Retired Persons
Author/ Credentials: The American Association of Retired Persons is a commercial site and doesn't mention author names. It is a nationally recognized organization that helps senior citizens with representation in state and government along with offering an array of discounts for services like auto insurance, health insurance, assisted living, traveling, etc.
Description: The physical activity page sponsored by the national website of the American Association of Retired Persons is in depth and resourceful. It provides many links that focus on different aspects on exercise in old age. Because the commercial aspect of the site they do offer items you can purchase like exercise videos and physical fitness books. The site provides a numerous amount of non-commercial links that deal with anything from strength training to dance aerobics. At the end of every informational link there are numerous references that provide exercises and additional article's that may help an older person start and continue an exercise program. The amount of support information given was unlike any of the other sites. Though each site mentioned how important it is to continue on an exercise program they also mentioned that a lot of senior citizens have a hard time sticking to one. The AARP offers articles and contacts on how to start a walking group or group strength straining. The site is one-hundred percent dedicated to increasing the quality of life for all senior citizens.
Reviewed by: Zachary Brethauer Dr. Dan Lago's Spring 2006 HDFS 129 class.
