Promoting physical activity for older people: a toolkit for action

The world Health Organization has recently released a document titled ” Promoting physical activity for older people: a toolkit for action”. This toolkit is one of a series to help countries develop and implement policy actions to effectively increase the proportion of people participating in physical activity. It is underpinned by the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (GAPPA) 2018–2030 and the ACTIVE technical package (7, 8), and focuses on interventions that can be delivered through primary health and community care services. It is also designed to support activities under the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030).

This toolkit draws on the best available evidence and practice to demonstrate the importance of ensuring that environments and settings support older people to be active, and that they provide physical activity services and programmes tailored to the needs, preferences and goals of all older people.

It provides guidance on the key approaches to promote and enable older people to be physically active, regardless of who they are, where they live, or their intrinsic capacities (for example their visual or cognitive abilities), or whether they live with chronic conditions (for example, diabetes, hypertension, and arthritis). This toolkit is designed to support all countries at national and subnational levels
(particularly low- and middle income countries with limited resources), and includes country case studies and practical tools
from around the world.

To continue reading and access the toolkit, click here.