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Successful Aging pp 251–267Cite as

Role of Physical Activity in Successful Ageing

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Abstract

Physical activity influence health outcomes of relevance to elderly populations, such as mortality, incidence of common chronic diseases, physical performance measures as indicators of physical and cognitive functioning, health-related quality of life, depression, sarcopenia and frailty. Categories of physical activity include occupational, household, exercise and leisure. Aerobic exercise promotes cardiorespiratory fitness, which is a determinant of chronic disease risk, and can be measured directly using VO2max or indirectly using the 6-minute walk test. Resistance exercises, flexibility and balance exercises are equally important in prevention of sarcopenia and frailty, while mind body exercises may improve both physical and psychological health. Lifestyle modification strategies are needed for uptake and maintenance of exercise recommendations into regular daily practice in order to achieve good outcomes.

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  1. Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR

    Jean Woo & Ruby Yu

  2. Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Forest Yau

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  1. Jean Woo
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  1. Dept. of Health and Physical Education, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, Hong Kong SAR

    Sheung-Tak Cheng

  2. School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Iris Chi

  3. Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR

    Helene H. Fung

  4. School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Lydia W. Li

  5. Dept. of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR

    Jean Woo

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Woo, J., Yau, F., Yu, R. (2015). Role of Physical Activity in Successful Ageing. In: Cheng, ST., Chi, I., Fung, H., Li, L., Woo, J. (eds) Successful Aging. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9331-5_15

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