University of Hawai'i Mānoa, Center on the Family, Honolulu, HI (MT, SY).
County of Kaua'i Elderly Affairs, Lihue, HI (JY).
Hawaii J Health Soc Welf. 2024 Jul;83(7):180-186. doi: 10.62547/MQXM6470.
The COVID pandemic exposed the vulnerability of older adults in myriad ways and social service organizations faced unprecedented challenges in safely providing support for older adults. Since 2007, Hawai'i Healthy Aging Partnership (HHAP) has offered Enhance®Fitness, an evidence-based program to reduce the risk of falls and promote health among older adults. Due to the pandemic, all the Enhance®Fitness sites had to close and stop offering the program. The HHAP started to provide alternative activities remotely in May 2020. To explore the pandemic's impact, the feasibility of online exercise programs, and the support needed among older adults to stay physically active, HHAP surveyed existing Enhance®Fitness participants and received 291 responses (59% response rate). The study used frequency distributions, comparison of means, and chi-square to analyze the survey data. Findings showed that the shutdown of the group exercise program during the pandemic led to a health status decline, a reduction in physical activities, and a shift from group to individual physical activities among older adult participants. Most respondents tried the remote exercise opportunities during the pandemic and would consider joining the remote programs in the future. However, about one-fourth of the respondents did not participate in remote exercise activities due to the lack of electronic devices, internet access, or interest in remote activity formats. To ensure equitable access to physical exercise programs for older adults in the post-pandemic era, it is critical to address the access challenges and resources needed for providing multiple programming options.
新冠疫情以多种方式暴露了老年人的脆弱性，社会服务组织在为老年人提供安全支持方面面临着前所未有的挑战。自 2007 年以来，夏威夷健康老龄化伙伴关系组织（HHAP）一直在提供基于证据的 Enhance®Fitness 计划，以降低老年人跌倒的风险并促进其健康。由于疫情，所有 Enhance®Fitness 站点都不得不关闭，停止提供该计划。HHAP 于 2020 年 5 月开始远程提供替代活动。为了探索疫情的影响、在线锻炼计划的可行性以及老年人保持身体活跃所需的支持，HHAP 对现有的 Enhance®Fitness 参与者进行了调查，共收到 291 份回复（59%的回复率）。该研究使用了频率分布、均值比较和卡方检验来分析调查数据。研究结果表明，疫情期间团体锻炼计划的关闭导致老年参与者的健康状况下降、身体活动减少以及从团体活动向个人活动的转变。大多数受访者在疫情期间尝试了远程锻炼机会，并表示将来会考虑加入远程锻炼计划。然而，约四分之一的受访者由于缺乏电子设备、互联网接入或对远程活动形式不感兴趣，没有参加远程锻炼活动。为了确保在疫情后为老年人提供公平的体育锻炼计划，解决获取途径的挑战以及提供多种编程选择所需的资源至关重要。
