Rural seniors benefit from pandemic-driven remote fitness boom

Sarah SmithJanuary 17, 2023

MALMO, Minnesota. Eight women aged 73 and over walked through the fellowship hall at Malmö Evangelical Free Church to a performance of Daniel O’Donnell’s “River of Babylon” as they warmed up for an hour-long fitness class.

Women living near or on the eastern shore of Lake Mille Lacs had many reasons to show up, despite fresh snow and slippery roads. One came to reduce the effects of osteoporosis; the other is to maintain mobility after a stroke.

Most brought hand and ankle weights with them, which they would use in the later part of the fall prevention program known as Stay Active and Independent for Life, or SAIL. The class meets twice a week in Malmö, a village of about 300 people. It is operated by Juniper, a nationwide network of health promotion providers.

A few years ago, seniors who were interested in taking an evidence-based class such as SAIL (meaning a class proven by research to promote health) had only one option: attend in person if offered nearby .

But then came the covid-19 pandemic and physical distancing. Along with social isolation, there has been a rapid adoption of remote access to everything from work to workouts.

After massive lockdowns began in March 2020, agencies serving seniors in the US have redesigned health classes to include virtual options. Isolation ended long ago, but virtual classes remained. For older adults in rural communities who find it difficult to get to gyms, these virtual classrooms offer opportunities for supervised physical activity, which was rare before the pandemic.

And advocates say online classes are here to stay.

“Virtually everyone knows that face-to-face and remote programming — a full range of programs — is a great way to reach more older people, increase access and equity,” said Jennifer Tripken, Associate Director of the Center for Healthy Aging. at the National Council on Aging. “This is where we need to move together.”

Since April 2020, the National Council on Aging has been organizing monthly calls for service providers to discuss how to improve or start offering virtual programs.

“We have found that remote programming, especially for rural areas, has expanded the reach of programs by enabling those who have not traditionally participated in face-to-face programs to now be able to tune in, use technology to participate and reap the benefits. Tripken said.

In 2022, at least 1,547 seniors took part in an online fitness program through Juniper, part of an initiative by the Minnesota Agency on Aging. More than half were from rural areas.

Due to grant funding, participants pay little or nothing at all.

Juniper virtual classes have become a regular activity for people who live far away from class venues and for those who cannot attend for medical reasons. Before the pandemic, Carmen Nohmann, 73, often attended physical education classes near her home in Rochester. After suffering a rare allergic reaction to a coronavirus vaccine, she had to cut out her boosters and limit face-to-face contact.

Virtual classes have been “really a great lifeline for keeping me fit and socializing,” she said.

Since 2020, Nomann has been involved in online tai chi and SAIL, at one point recording four days a week.

“Now we will never give up on our online courses,” said Julie Rawls, Juniper vice president of communications. “We’ve learned from many people, especially rural people, that this allows them to participate in classes on a regular basis – and they don’t have to drive 50 miles to get to class.”

When seniors travel a long way to attend classes with people outside their community, “it’s harder to create a sense of ‘I’m supported right here at home,'” she said.

Rawls said both the virtual and in-person exercise programs aim to address the social exclusion experienced by older people in rural areas.

Dr. Yvonne Hanley has been teaching the online SAIL course for Juniper since 2021 from his home near Fergus Falls. She recently retired from dentistry and was looking for a way to help people gain strength and stay healthy.

At first, Hanley was skeptical that the students in her class would bond, but over time it did. “I say good morning to every person when they check in,” she said. “And then during the lesson, I try to make it fun.”

AgeOptions, an Illinois-based agency that caters to seniors, has seen similar benefits with the introduction of virtual fitness programs. Agency officials said last year that their operations “could change forever” in favor of a hybrid model of virtual and in-person sessions.

This model allows AgeOptions to maintain training programs even during the harsh Illinois winters. Organizers previously restricted winter events to keep seniors from traveling on snow and ice, but now AgeOptions is relying on telecommuting instead.

“If it wasn’t for the pandemic and we didn’t move these programs to a virtual environment, we wouldn’t have been able to do this,” said Kathryn Zam, manager of AgeOptions. “We could potentially spend months limiting our programming or limiting the types of programming we offer. So now we can still offer fall prevention programs throughout the year because we can offer them in a safe way.”

But the new approach has problems.

AgeOptions has identified expanding access to technology as a funding priority for the next few years for seniors to subscribe.

The agency found that for many “people in rural communities, it was a challenge not only to have a device, but also to have the bandwidth to conduct videoconferencing,” Zam said.

Tripken said providers and members need guidance and support to make it easier to access virtual classrooms.

“For the elderly in particular, this includes ensuring that people with visual loss, those with hearing loss, and people with low English proficiency” can participate in virtual classes, she said.

Some programs have created contraptions to overcome the technological barrier.

Members of Bingocize, a fall prevention program licensed by Western Kentucky University that combines exercise and health education with bingo, can use a printed copy of the game card mailed to them by AgeOptions if they lack the skills to play the game app. In any case, they are required to participate in the video.

According to Jason Crandell, Bingocize’s creator and global director, the mail option came about after Bingocize processed requests from many senior service organizations trying to figure out how to offer it remotely.

Crandell developed Bingocize as a personal study program and later added an online application for use during personal studies. Then covid hit.

“Suddenly, all these regional aging agencies were scrambling to figure out, ‘How do we remotely run these evidence-based programs?’” Crandell said.

He said that Bingocize was one of the few programs at the time that could move quickly into strictly remote programming, although it had never done so before.

“From the beginning of the pandemic until today, we have gone light years in how this is done,” he said, “and everyone is becoming more and more comfortable.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national news service that produces in-depth journalism on health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three main operating programs of the KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is a charitable non-profit organization providing health information to the nation.