Suvi Neukam: Enabling Healthy Behaviors BACK

Published by AFAR

This is Suvi Neukem's second entry. Read her first MSTAR Diary to learn about how she began her summer experience.

With mere seconds left on the red-flashing-hand, I arrived to the other side of La Jolla Village Drive. From the safety of the curb I turned around and saw the rest of my group in mid-cross walk. Not equipped with the gait speed of an active 26 year old, the elder adults I was with struggled to make it across the six-lane road in the 30 seconds that the signal allowed. Exacerbating the observation was the fact that this was a group of participants in our walking study—this means that the elder adults were “physically fit”. While the critical mass of our group greatly decreased the risk of an accident, the reality of the situation was that often times, the participants in our study and older adults in general tend to walk alone and certainly not with 8 other people. In good conscience, to continue promoting increased physical activity amongst elder adults, something had to be done about improving neighborhood walkability.

The study I am working with is called MIPARC: Multi-level intervention for physical activity in retirement communities. The primary purpose is to increase physical activity in older adults, primarily through walking, and then assess the benefit to physical health, cognitive function, and quality of life. At each intervention site, peer leaders are selected from the group of participants. The function of the peer leaders are to help recruit for and plan events, continue promoting walking for the last 6 months of the study, and to serve as liaisons for the group voice throughout. Critical to all three of these aspects is ensuring that what we are asking the participants to do is actually possible—are they able to walk? Answering this question and finding solutions is the second purpose of the study.

It was in this spirit that we walked across La Jolla Village Drive that afternoon. Our group consisted of my colleagues, the peer leaders from our intervention site, and two representatives from Walk San Diego, an advocacy group that promotes walkable communities. Prior conversations with the peer leaders made us aware of this formidable cross walk and we were now taking action to make change. Working with Walk San Diego to increase the length of the “walk signal” at this intersection was one of many changes we discussed that day. Also on the list were: filling in several pot holes (apparently there is a phone app where you can take a picture and the coordinates are sent immediately to the city roads department!), cleaning up a commonly used pedestrian bridge, painting more visible crosswalks, and remodeling curbs to be ADA accessible.

Participating in this event was inspiring. We enabled elder adults to recognize the importance of their own voice in the community. We took steps towards making daily physical activity a reality for more people than just the participants in our study. But the greatest inspiration for me was in realizing that as a physician my role was more than just prescribing healthy behavior, it could also be helping to make that behavior possible.

Suvi Neukam
University of New England

"Diary of an MSTAR Student" follows scholars in the 2011 Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) Program, highlighting their summer experiences. As they continue their path of research, training and clinical practice, read their daily thoughts at www.afar.org/mstarblog. New diary entries are posted every day, so check back soon.