5 Policies We Need to Support Active Aging in America

December 10, 2009

Posted by Maggie Spilner

The International Council on Active Aging (ICAA) recently got 20 of its major players together to make recommendations to the Obama administration regarding senior health. The ICAA has been defining this concept called “active aging” since 2001 and has some 8,000 members. Members are mostly people and organizations who work with folks over 50 whose businesses help promote wellness, prevent disease and create healthier lifestyles and senior communities.

There has been a steady stream of research since I was an editor at Prevention Magazine that supports the notion that physical activity is pretty much a “wonder drug” against the ravages of aging. Being active in pretty moderate ways can help maintain your physical health, mental health, and cognitive abilities. Often, physical activity also includes social interactions and intellectual stimulation which are also important to health and quality of life. It’s never too late either. If you’re over 50 and start exercising moderately 90 minutes a week, research shows, you will save on average $2,200 per year in medical costs.

Here are summaries of the 5 recommendations the ICAA “think tank” sent to policy makers in Washington:

1. Tax incentives for workforce wellness: Increase physical activity and healthy lifestyles among adults ages 50 years and older by offering tax incentives to companies that implement workforce wellness programs. Financial incentives for the employees and for the employer should increase according to employee participation.

2. Ways to measure success: Define clear markers of success that can be used by community centers, senior centers, retirement housing and other organizations to show outcomes associated with lifestyle choices. (We need the hard data to prove spending money on seniors does help reduce physical decline and health care costs!)

3. Tax deductions for physician-prescribed exercise: Encourage older adults to take charge of their health and improve their quality of life by extending tax deductions for physician-prescribed exercise programs for age-related health conditions, like hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

Of course, participation levels and the positive results have to be documented and provable, but this is such a worthy effort. Often people are not self motivated do little more than take medications to help themselves, when so much more could be done to improve their health and literally save their lives.

4. Insurance help for exercise and lifestyle support: Encourage the ability of patients help themselves by getting insurance companies to create codes and support for medical and other trained professionals who help seniors through rehabilitation, and exercise and lifestyle support programs. We can reduce costs overall by helping people learn to protect their health through healthy habits.

5. Money for students pursuing fields related to healthy aging: With a huge baby boomer population growing older every day, we need to encourage more people to get involved and trained in gerontology, health promotion and disease prevention strategies. Let’s give scholarships or reimbursements to those interested in these fields. That big wave of aging boomers is already cresting and there is much we can do to reduce suffering, sickness and costs to society as these people grow older.

The ICAA also notes that for aging adults, a healthy lifestyle also results from intellectual and social activity, emotional balance, volunteering or paid work, a safe environment conducive to active living and a spiritual or inner compass. If you’d like to know more about their work, special events, or resources for active aging in your area, visit their website at www.icaa.cc.