Purpose
The purpose of the Center for Physical Activity and Aging (CPAA) is to examine the interrelationships between exercise and aging via research, education, and service.
The CPAA then integrates these findings into practical forms of physical activity and multidimensional strategies that allow older adults to maintain or improve their quality of life
History
The Center for Physical Activity and Aging (CPAA) was established with the approval of the Kansas Board of Regents in 1996. Since that time, the CPAA has developed to become a regional center that provides program information, leadership training, and support services to organizations in Wichita and the smaller communities of central and western Kansas that provide for older adults.
With its research, education and community outreach initiatives, the CPAA strives to demonstrate the physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and spiritual benefits that are associated with regular physical activity for older adults. The CPAA offers fitness classes at WSU for older adults and has been instrumental in establishing several exercise programs at community senior centers, churches, and fitness centers in Wichita and surrounding towns. Through community programs and workshops, the CPAA provides practical guidance for older adults, as well as those who live and work with them.
What do we offer....
The CPAA emphasizes research with practical applications. The activity classes and community programs are "living laboratories" that allow research to be translated into effective forms of physical activity and multidimensional strategies that allow older adults to enhance their quality of life. Research results are presented to international audiences at professional conferences and published in research journals. Several studies currently underway are examining a variety of physical activities specifically designed to prevent falls and improve balance, muscle strength and functional ability.
Through its research and community outreach programs the CPAA challenges the young and old to change the traditional portrayal of aging as a sedentary experience associated with unfavorable consequences and physical reductions. As it does this, the CPAA creates an active and healthy image that promotes successful aging as a time of continued cognitive, emotional, social, spiritual, and, certainly, physical development.