Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Despite the well established physical and mental health benefits of physical activity to improve the quality of aging most older Canadians remain physically inactive. More worrisome, most still either fail to adopt or maintain an active lifestyle. Addressing this research priority is critical to foster successful aging for all Canadians. The promotion of physical literacy has emerged as a promising strategy to increase physical activity participation in younger populations; however, there is yet no evidence of physical literacy being used to support older adults in their quest to become or remain physical active. Previously our working group developed a novel evidence-based ecological framework of physical literacy that applies to all older adults. The purpose of this proposal is to now plan for the development of multi-format resources targeted to older adults themselves and organizations and practitioners who work with older adults with the goal of improving the quality of life and health of older Canadians and increase older adult's ability to remain actively engage in society. We believe physical literacy has the potential to be a powerful tool to support physical activity behaviors that ultimately will support healthy aging of older Canadians.