Study: stay active, stay healthy keeping residents independent longer.

Persons who remain physically and mentally active after "retirement" are likely to spend more time in an independent living or assisted living-based facility and less in a nursing home, according to results of an ongoing study.

The study, conducted by Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based Masterpiece Living at two continuing care retirement communities in Florida over the past two years, could therefore be considered good news or bad news, depending on which segment of the long term care industry a facility serves.

Sixty-five residents total from Freedom Village in Bradenton, Fla., and University Village in Tampa, Fla.--average age 83--volunteered for the study, according to Masterpiece Living President Roger Landry. The CCRCs employed a whole-person wellness program that included physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, and vocational elements.

Each participant received health risk assessments, lifestyle reviews and mobility testing from 2003 to early 2005. The risk assessment measured the resident's chance of developing disease or injury; the lifestyle review was each resident's personal assessment of how happy they were about their life; and the mobility review measured aspects such as the ability to walk, maintain balance or perform basic strength tests.

In almost every category, the Masterpiece participants showed a significantly lower rate of decline compared to the national norm, Landry said. "Most of the national data shows that there's usually a pretty steep decline when people hit their 80s." he said.

In particular, the lifestyle review showed that although participants may not have felt quite as well physically in 2005 as they did when they began the testing two years earlier, their lifestyle rating was still about 10 years better than the national norm, Landry said.

There was also a decreased medical risk for problems such as high cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and weight gain, as well as lifestyle issues such as alcohol use, dietary concerns and exercise level, according to the study.

The bottom line: the more mentally and physically active they are, the healthier and happier residents will be, Landry said.

Masterpiece's findings supported a 10-year study on the principles of successful aging sponsored by the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Landry said. That study, conducted by John Rowe and Robert Kahn and published in 1998, determined that only 30 percent of physical aging can be attributed to genes and revealed lifestyle decisions as the dominant factor in aging.

"The theory used to be that around age 65, you would disengage from life, work, political activities and social activities," Landry said. "We now know, however, that aging doesn't have to be that way. Older adults can continue to learn, continue to be active and continue to grow--maybe not at the same pace as when they were younger, but they can certainly do it."

Such a development means changes for the existing long term care culture, which maintains the stereotype that functional capacity is supposed to decline as one ages, Landry said. "If I spend 99 percent of my time independent and functioning reasonably well, then the time when I'm going to have to rely on others or be in a nursing home--if at all--is going to be extremely limited.