Abstract
The aging population faces two conditions that threaten healthy aging: high fat mass (obesity) and low muscle mass and function (sarcopenia). The combination of both—referred to as sarcopenic obesity—synergistically increases the risk of adverse health outcomes. The two conditions often co-occur because they reinforce each other and share common etiologies, including poor nutrition and inactivity. All aging people are at risk of gaining weight and losing muscle mass and could benefit from improvements in physical activity, exercise and dietary intake. one specific window of opportunity is during the transient time of retirement, as older adults already need to restructure their daily activities. It is key to change lifestyle behavior in a sustainable manner, providing scientifically proven, personalized, and acceptable principles that can be integrated in daily life. Health technologies (e.g., applications) can provide promising tools to deliver personalized and appealing lifestyle interventions to a large group of people while keeping health care costs low. Several studies show that health technologies have a strong positive effect on physical activity, exercise and dietary intake. Specifically, health technology is increasingly applied to older people, although strong evidence for long term effects in changing lifestyle behavior is generally lacking. Concluding, technology could play an important role in the highly warranted prevention of sarcopenic obesity in older adults. Although health technology seems to be a promising tool to stimulate changes in physical activity, exercise and dietary intake, studies on long lasting effects and specifically targeted on older people around the time of retirement are warranted.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 661449 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Nutrition |
| Volume | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 24 May 2021 |
Funding
Funding. All authors are consortium members of the SO-NUTS project, a funded project (start April 2021) by the JPI HDHL PREPHOBES call, the 4th call under the umbrella of the ERA-NET HDHL INTIMIC. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the ERA-NT Cofund action No. 727565. All authors are consortium members of the SO-NUTS project, a funded project (start April 2021) by the JPI HDHL PREPHOBES call, the 4th call under the umbrella of the ERA-NET HDHL INTIMIC. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the ERA-NT Cofund action No. 727565.