2019 Annual Conference

Community, Minority, and Non-Formal Education

Concurrent Session (45 minutes)

The purpose of this session is to discuss ageism in the fitness and health arena. Participants will review the contemporary studies that examined ageism in this field and understand how ageism manifests itself and its influence on older adults’ learning and practicing exercise.

This session includes the following target audiences: Instructors or program coordinators in a fitness center; health professionals; educators and researchers in the field of older adult education; senior fitness specialists; and others who work with older adults.

First, the types and characteristics of ageist stereotypes in the fitness and health arena will be discussed. Then, the influence of the ageist perception on older adults’ learning exercise and participating in a physical activity program will be delineated. By the end of this session, participants will be able to: (1) define ageism, (2) understand how ageism manifests in the fitness and health arena, and how it influences older adults’ physical activity, and (3) create a list of “best practices” to address ageism in the health industry and internalized ageism of older adults as regards physical activity and learning.

Despite the well-known benefits of physical activity among older adults (e.g., improving fitness, preserving physical function, and enhancing mental health), they are considered to be the least physically active group (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). The barriers of engagement in physical activity among the older population mainly fall into physical ailments (Cohen-Mansfield, Marx, & Guralnik, 2003), environment (Schutzer, & Graves, 2004), physician advice (Balde, Figueras, Hawking, & Miller, 2003), personal aspects, and age-related stereotypical conceptions (Giles et al., 2002). While many studies have shown what helps and hinders older adults’ engagement with regular physical activity (Neff et al., 2019), a systematic literature review of studies that explore ageism in the fitness and health field has not been done. In response to the increasing aging population trends and its effect on the context of the fitness and exercise, it is important to understand how ageism manifest and its influence on older adults’ learning and practicing exercise.

We will report findings from reviewing contemporary empirical studies that examined ageism in the fitness and health field. We will briefly delineate a process of our literature review. Then, we will examine the types and characteristics of ageism and its influence on older adults’ learning exercise and participating in a physical activity program.

The presenters and attendees will introduce themselves. We will ask attendees to break into small groups to briefly discuss these questions: (1) How do you define ageism? (2) How do you think ageism affects older adults’ learning and participation in physical activity? Individuals will reconvene as a large group to answer these questions. Then we will present our literature review findings. Last, we will ask our participants to make a list of “best practices” that can be used by those in the health industry to address ageism in the health industry as well as the internalized ageist attitudes older people have about themselves and their abilities. We will define ageism and briefly present the findings from our literature review.