Quality of Life

There are four tools for older adults that provide a higher quality of life.  Having the right tools will make any job easier.  When you are working to maintain independence, the right tool can be life changing.

Take the Smartphone as tool number one.  Pew Research has found that only 27% of seniors aged 65 and older have a smartphone and a vast majority of them describe their smartphone as “freeing.”  A smartphone is all you need to read email, do research, have face time/calls, to connect with friends and family on social media.

For older adults a smartphone can make up for common deficits, like memory issues.  With the right app, you can monitor medication use, keep track of physical activity, watch blood pressure levels, and even play brain games to exercise your mind.  For people who are not so technology savvy, Great Call is one company that designs some of the best senior-friendly smartphones on the market, made to be intuitive enough for anyone to use.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/29/seniors-smartphones/

Tool two: a Fitness Tracker.  While smartphones can help monitor your health in many ways, they are not a fitness tracker.  The right tracker can give you detailed feedback about your physical activity, as well as your sleeping patterns.  You can track calories burned, distances traveled, and even the quality of your sleep.  When we know more, we make better decisions.  A Fitness tracker can provide you with data that allows for healthy choices.

Tool three: Dressing Aids.  The value of a dressing aid can only be appreciated by trying one.  In addition to shoe horns that many of us have experienced, there are many other assists that can help you get dressed.  For people who suffer from arthritis, or similar health conditions that impact mobility, there are dressing aids that help you zip, button, fasten, and pull.  Dressing aids extend your flexibility and range of motion without unnecessary pain.

Tool Four:  Gardening Kneeling Pads!  Anything that can keep a garden love active in the garden is quality of life giving.  Being sedentary is unhealthy at any age but, particularly dangerous for older adults.  Obesity and hypertension are only two examples of why we must keep moving.  Boredom can be just as dangerous as it may lead to depression, issolation, or an unhealthy loss of weight which can all be precursors for more serious health issues.

Gardening is one of the best choices to break free from a sedentary lifestyle.  It combines fresh air, a productive activity, and a pleasurable way to pass the time.  Gardening kneeling pads help distribute body weight and reduce or prevent joint pain when on your knees in the garden.  The kneeling pad allows you to distribute weight evenly across the pad reducing stress on the joints.

http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-14-333

Subjectivity appears to be fundamental to our understanding of “quality of life.”  The debate goes on related to physical health, mental, spiritual and social health.  Without a doubt it will continue to be evaluated based on cultural perspectives, values, personal expectations and goals of what we want from life.  That being duly noted, for a higher quality of life today, with no need for debate, incorporate the above four tools into any older adults life and be assured quality of life will improve!

Ramona Hunt, M.S.                                                                                                                                         Touching Hearts, Inc.