Lifestyle Activities in Sociodemographically At-Risk Urban, Older Adults Prior to Participation in the Baltimore Experience Corps^® Trial

Abstract

Experience Corps^® places teams of trained volunteers in elementary school classrooms to promote academic achievement in children and serves as a health-promotion intervention for older adults. Prior to randomization, individuals reported participation in several activities of varying cognitive, physical, and social demands. Maintaining an active lifestyle, particularly in intellectually demanding activities, was associated with physical, mental, and cognitive health in adulthood. Establishing how individuals allocated their time before randomization to this program provides insight into prevalent health behaviors for at-risk older adults, and can provide the basis for examining intervention-related changes in lifestyle as a result of volunteer participation.

Keywords:

• engagement
• activities
• intervention
• cognition
• aging
• volunteers

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Funding support for this article was provided in part by NIA P01 AG027735, the John A. Hartford Foundation, and by the Johns Hopkins Older Americans Independence Center under contracts P30-AG02133 and R37-AG19905 from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Parisi was supported, in part, by a National Institute of Mental Health Prevention Research Training Grant (T-32 MH018834; Nicholas Ialongo, principal investigator).

Please note this article represents work done while Dr. Erwin Tan was at the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health; now at the Corporation for National and Community Service. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not represent the official position of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

The authors would also like to thank the Greater Homewood Community Corporation, Experience Corps National, Civic Ventures, the Baltimore City Public School System, the City of Baltimore, the Commission on Aging and Retirement Education, the Baltimore City Retirees Association, AARP, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for ongoing vision and support.

Special thanks to all the staff and volunteers of the Baltimore Experience Corps who have made this all possible.

Notes

1. It should be noted that the data were reanalyzed to include only African American participants, which did not significantly alter the pattern of findings.