Healthy Diet and Exercise is Effective in Improving Metabolic Abnormalities in Community-Living Older Adults

[[abstract]]Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of healthy diet and physical exercises on reducing the risk of metabolic abnormalities in community-living adults. Methods: Taichung Health Bureau and Asia University partnered to design a program and trained field workers to carry out a health-promoting project in summer 2010. Twenty-one community groups totaling 583 adults participated in the project and one group was randomly chosen to serve as controls. All participants received graphic leaflets on healthy living but treatment groups received class sessions on healthy eating and exercise activities for the first four weeks. Field workers empowered group leaders to organize and choose appropriate group activities. Group leaders served as role models and helped break learning barriers. Participants shared progress and experiences of action-learning at monthly meetings. Results: After 16 weeks, significant (all p