An interdisciplinary team of researchers engaged in scholarship with community members participating in MU Extension’s Stay Strong, Stay Healthy (SSSH) program received the MU Team Engagement Award at the 2019 MU Extension and Engagement Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, October 22 at the Holiday Inn Expo Center in Columbia.
In a partnership among MU Extension, the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, the Department of Physical Therapy, and the Skeletal Morphology Lab in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, researchers are working to better understand the impact of physical activity in older adults. The team is conducting a mixed-methods study in two phases: (1) a quantitative phase to track physiologic changes in participant’s balance, gait, muscle strength, body composition, and skeletal health and (2) a follow-up qualitative phase to explore participants’ perceptions of the impact of physical activity and changes in behaviors and attitudes.
SSSH aims to provide older adults with access to a safe, structured exercise program capable of building muscle and increasing bone density, thus decreasing frailty, osteoporosis, and the risk of falls. SSSH helps participants meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s physical activity recommendations, which call for strengthening activities that work all major muscle groups at least two days a week in addition to aerobic activities such as walking or swimming.
The purpose of the MU Team Engagement Award is to recognize a team of University of Missouri faculty, staff, and students (graduate or undergraduate), as well as community members, for sustained community engagement or engaged scholarship. Community engagement, or engaged scholarship, represents a collaboration between higher education faculty and their community for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and/or resources in a framework that is cooperative and reciprocal.
Team members recognized include:
- Bree Baker, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
- Stephen Ball, PhD, Professor, Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology
- Elena Doctor, BS, Graduate Student, Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology
- Dana Duren, PhD, Professor and Director of Research, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
- Susan Mills-Gray, MA, Extension Professor and Extension State Specialist, Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology
- Trent Guess, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Physical Therapy
- Kristin Miller, MS, Assistant Extension Professor, Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology
- Lisa Royse, PhD, Qualitative Research Consultant, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
- Kelsey Weitzel, MS, Assistant Extension Professor, Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology
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