Feasibility and Impact of an Outdoor Physical Activity Park for Older Adults to Encourage Healthy Aging and Maintain Independence
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Physical activity may maintain and improve overall health and well-being throughout one’s lifetime. Among older adults, improved physical function can reduce fall risk, cognitive decline, and improve overall psychological well-being. Despite these numerous benefits, older adults often encounter barriers to regular exercise, including limited accessibility, lack of motivation, and financial constraints. Placement of designated outdoor physical activity parks specifically designed for older people may offset these barriers. This pilot study assessed the feasibility of using outdoor parks to encourage physical activity and improve motor and cognitive function, and quality of life among older people. Independent participants were recruited from the community, and frail participants from the day center adjoining the park. Participants completed pre-/post-intervention evaluations [Activities of Daily Living [ADL], Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale [IADL], World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire-Brief [WHOQoL-BREF], falls questionnaire, Montreal Cognitive Assessment [MoCA] assessment and the Timed Up and Go [TUG], Uni Pedal Stance Test [UPST], and 30 seconds sit to stand test [ 30 CST] tests]. Exercise sessions lasted 30 to 45 minutes, were supervised by a health professional, and provided twice weekly over an 8-week period; 33 participants (66–87 years), completed the program. Among frail participants, a significant improvement was noted in TUG test results [F(1, 30) = 15.49, p < .001, η 2 = .356], indicating improved balance and reduced fall risk, and a marginally significant increase in the psychological quality of life was noted among independent participants [F(1, 30) = 3.62, p = .067, η 2 = .108]. Overall participant satisfaction was high. An outdoor park intervention among older frail and independent adults may have a significant positive impact on physical and psychological health variables and future research should be encouraged in this area.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".