BIA UK’s Kenny Butler Published in the British Medical Journal

BIA UK’s very own Kenny Butler has co-authored a study that has made it into the British Medical Journal (BMJ) as part of his work with Active Health UK. The piece has been covered in numerous press including The Sun, The Times and iNews.

Focus on Physical Activity Can Can Help Avoid Unnecessary Social Care

You can read the finished article here but in summary, the study explains how physical activity for older adults can help maintain their health and reduce the spiralling cost of social care.

The cost ramifications and shortage of social care services are rife in the UK and with direct links between “the parlous state of the NHS and the social care crisis”, it’s important for the nation’s future health to address this and reduce the impact.

This write up shows that there is a cost-efficient and effective way to start reducing the social care cost by simply focusing on increasing the amount of physical activity completed by older adults.

Discussion

Within the published piece is a discussion on the effects of ageing and loss of fitness. It is noted that the two are often confused and mistakenly, people tend to think that exercise may make health conditions worse whereas this is rarely the case. By working on strength, stamina, suppleness and skill the benefits for older adults can span cognitive, physical and social aspects.

An important report from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges wrote: “Exercise may reverse the decline and keep a person above the threshold for needing increased care”. This is an important statement and indicative of how important exercise can be in reducing social care cost.

The piece then goes on to discuss the role of healthcare and policy in supporting these findings as well as specific statistics around physical activity and health benefits.

Read the full post here.