{"id":687016,"date":"2026-05-22T19:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/687016\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T19:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:47:09","slug":"crumbling-infrastructure-stops-older-people-from-being-active-say-mps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/687016\/","title":{"rendered":"Crumbling infrastructure stops older people from being active, say MPs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The select committee report argued that \u201cincreasing movement<\/a> \u2013 especially among the least active \u2013 can prevent many of the leading causes of death, prevent the onset of frailty, dementia and disability and help narrow the unacceptable 20-year gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas of the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

It added that \u201cphysical activity can be more effective than drugs in preventing, treating and managing many long-term conditions\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report also said the Care Quality Commission, which regulates NHS and social care services, should ensure that exercise programmes are being provided to residents in care homes.<\/p>\n

Under current UK guidance, people should aim to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week and do activities aimed at improving or maintaining muscle strength, balance and flexibility at least twice a week, under current UK guidance.<\/p>\n

Figures suggest that 44 per cent of people aged 75 or older are doing less than 30 minutes of moderate physical activity per week.<\/p>\n

Report \u2018should be wake-up call\u2019<\/p>\n

Layla Moran, the chairman of the health select committee, said: \u201cStaying physically active can help older people to live not just longer, but healthier, happier, more sociable lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caroline Abrahams, the charity director at Age UK<\/a>, said the report should be \u201ca wake-up call for us all about how being physically active can help us to age well\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope the report also jogs national and local policymakers into recognising that there is a lot more they can and should be doing to make it easier for older people to keep moving, as a natural part of their daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Age UK research found that a lack of confidence and self-perception was holding many 50 to 65-year-olds back from group activities and team sports, while only 23 per cent of people more than 50 said that their GP had spoken to them about exercise.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a study led by University College London, King\u2019s College London and the University of Oxford found that the UK was experiencing a \u201cgenerational health drift\u201d, with younger people suffering poor health earlier than in previous generations.<\/p>\n

The study, published in the journal Population Studies, said that for some health issues \u2013 particularly obesity, mental ill-health and diabetes \u2013 \u201cprevalence of poor health was higher in more recent generations\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The select committee report argued that \u201cincreasing movement \u2013 especially among the least active \u2013 can prevent many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[49,48,251600,408,407,84,44,251599,163325,2225,11143],"class_list":["post-687016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-elder-health","tag-exercise","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-news","tag-nhs-national-health-service","tag-potholes","tag-standard","tag-uk-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}