Strength and balance exercise

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Helping us develop messages to encourage over 65s to take part in strength and balance activities or exercise

People doing a Strength and balance class

Hampshire Perspectives is the County Council's residents' forum

This report summarises key findings from the 31st Hampshire Perspectives survey.

It was conducted to help us understand more about the types of exercise people aged over 65 do, or the reasons why they don’t exercise.

The survey was open from 22 February to 7 March 2024, and was completed by 792 Hampshire Perspectives forum members, the majority of whom were aged 65+ themselves. Any younger forum members taking part were asked questions in context of encouraging over 65s they knew, such as their parents, to take up certain exercises.

Key findings were as follows:

Almost all of the 65+ age group who responded told us about things that were becoming harder now than they used to be, most notably kneeling down and getting up again, or some aspects of sport or exercise.

Among those who do exercise regularly, many are already doing strength and balance type activities, most commonly gardening. Others are doing things that are not specifically strength and balance focused, such as walking.

  • Of a list of specific recommended activities, heavy gardening was the most attractive to this group, followed by Pilates and yoga. Some other activities, such as ball or racquet sports typically held lower appeal.

For those aged 65 and over not exercising as regularly, the barriers were around the physical demands of it, and limitations in personal capability - although there were also some survey participants who said they found it hard to be motivated.

  • The type of exercise that appealed most to this group was something gentle, that could easily be built into everyday routine.

Forum members under 65 told us about how they might, or might not, feel able to encourage older people (such as their parents) to perform strength and balance exercise.

  • Those thinking about someone over 65 who already exercises felt it would be difficult to encourage that person to do anything different: there was a sense that any exercise already being done was sufficient, and a feeling that the recommended list of strength and balance activities would not appeal.
  • There was greater potential for under 65s to encourage someone aged 65+ who does not already exercise to take up the bite-size exercises. This hinged on the benefits of mobility / flexibility / movement, to stop any decline, and promote longer, healthier living. Any barriers to this were around a parent’s physical limitations, or a feeling that it wasn’t their place try to change their parent’s behaviour.

The findings have been used to help develop a public health campaign to encourage over 65s to take part in specific strength and balance activities that will help strengthen bone and muscle and improve balance. This helps prevent falls, while also improving mood, sleep patterns, energy, and independence.

The learning from different groups of respondents helped develop a series of tailored messages:

The campaign was widely run across social media, on radio, and via posters / newspapers, reaching a large number of people in Hampshire (e.g. over 38,000 people heard about it on the radio and over 135,000 saw it on Facebook).

* These made use of assets from the Fallproof campaign developed by Active Gloucestershire, which were felt to fit the needs identified from the survey.