The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center will be spearheading research in ways to address obesity among elderly people.
Research shows that about 35 percent of elderly people are obese, and that number is increasing nationwide.
But new technologies could help elderly people with obesity change their behaviors to improve their strength and make them safer.
That's what Dr. John Batsis, a geriatrician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, will focus on, using new grant funding from the National Institute on Aging.
“It integrates the use of technology and telehealth over the course of the five-year grant to be able to examine this,” he told VPR over the phone. “I think it creates a great opportunity for patients to participate in something that has the potential to improve their health.”
This fall, Batsis and his colleagues will start recruiting people in Vermont and New Hampshire to participate in studies aimed at improving health for elderly people with obesity.
