Grant: Knowledge Translation Supplement

Cognitive decline among seniors is a pressing health care issue. Effective pharmacologic treatment of mild cognitive impairment and dementia remains a major medical challenge. Hence, effective primary prevention strategies of cognitive decline - such as targeted exercise training -- would greatly benefit individuals and society. In 65 to 75 year old community-dwelling women, we demonstrated that 12 months of progressive resistance training once- or twice-weekly improved selective attention and conflict resolution, relative to twice-weekly balance and toning exercises. However, the prevalence of resistance training among seniors is low. Reasons include public health policy not emphasizing resistance training and misinformation. Thus, the knowledge translation challenge here is to: 1) change the perception of resistance training for seniors (i.e., reduce misinformation); and 2) provide base knowledge in progressive resistance training prescription/uptake for seniors. Therefore, our primary objective is to create an online video library that will show seniors, medical students, physical therapists, and fitness instructors/personal trainers why progressive resistance training is important for healthy aging, including the maintenance of cognitive function, and how to adopt/prescribe this type of exercise training safely and effectively.