UNAIR NEWS – Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) continues to produce innovative people. A lecturer of UNAIR Faculty of Public Health (FKM), Farapti, dr MGizi, through her research and community service, succeeded in creating an innovation in the form of an educational track to support older people to be active.
Track concept
Farapti explained that her innovation was a walking-track media or tool with an educational aspect. The goal is to help the older people keep moving actively.
The track, she continued, has interactive and integrated components to train the muscles of older people. The track is presented with banners containing health messages. Furthermore, the track is also designed according to movement patterns that can improve the agility, speed, and body balance of older people.
“This track will provide an activity for the older people so they can move actively. Moreover, there are also health messages on this track, so the benefits will be doubled, to train muscles and improve the memory of the older people,” she said to UNAIR NEWS, Wednesday, April 19, 2023.
The reason behind this innovation was Farapti’s concern about the condition of older people who are vulnerable to declining health conditions. She believes that older people need to be stimulated to carry out physical activities and obtain basic health knowledge.
“Why do we provide an educational aspect? Because it can improve the knowledge of older people about health. Usually, health counseling is through lectures. However, we see that this method is less effective, given the hearing and vision conditions of the older people, which tend to decline and make it difficult to concentrate,“ she explained.
Research journey
The research targeting older people began in 2019 and continues to this day. At that time, she was conducting research and community service at a nursing home in Surabaya.
“Results of research activities and community service are delivered in the form of education, counseling, as well as a health check,” said Farapti.
Then, in 2020, research and community service were hampered due to the Covid-19 pandemic. She faced obstacles in the form of activity restrictions and the implementation of strict health protocols.
Furthermore, switching activities from offline to online is also less practicable for older people. Bearing in mind the condition of older people, most of whom are not familiar with technology and need a specific approach directly.
“The pandemic obstructed the activities because almost all of them were switched to online. Well, a real challenge was when we couldn’t implement online activities for them. Moreover, most of them come from the older people who are neglected and poor, so they don’t have the media,” she explained.
Nevertheless, she overcame these obstacles and continued her research until now. In fact, the research now registered in the patent has received support in the form of funding from various parties, both internal UNAIR and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology.
In the future, Farapti plans to downstream and disseminate the innovations she created with support and assistance from the central and regional governments. Thus, she hopes that her innovation can be useful and benefit society.
“Hopefully, in the future, we can also apply this innovation on a more massive basis, on other subjects and a wider variety of ages,” she concluded.
Author: Yulia Rohmawati
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
