Elderly Health Knowledge Contest

Can the Elderly Health Knowledge Competition really help the elderly avoid health traps and develop scientific living habits? The answer is yes, but the premise is that it is not a formalistic activity that follows the official manual. It must address the real pain points that middle-aged and elderly people encounter every day, so that the knowledge points on the field can be turned into a health protection umbrella in their lives.

Last year, I worked as a volunteer at a street social work station and participated in the preparations for a community-level health knowledge competition. At first, we had a lot of quarrels among ourselves. Several young social workers who have just graduated advocated setting standardized test questions based entirely on the "Health Guidelines for the Elderly in China". The test questions are all questions with clear standard answers such as "What is the normal range of body mass index for the elderly?" and "How many grams of salt should be consumed daily by patients with hypertension?" They say this is professional enough and the scoring is fair. Sister Zhang, who has worked in the community for almost ten years, was the first to object. She said that the community had held a similar quiz competition two years ago, and several uncles and aunts who often went to the University for the Elderly won the first, second, and third prizes. Aunt Li, who usually likes to buy health products, spent more than 3,000 to get back a massage device that is said to "can cure cataracts" without remembering any knowledge points.

It just so happened that the community next door held a competition that followed the standardized route. I went to watch it. The host on the stage read the questions in a clear and concise tone. Half of the adults sitting in the audience were chatting about today's vegetable prices and half were picking at the egg shells that were awarded for participation. The Q&A session always consisted of a few familiar faces raising their hands. When it was over, I asked Uncle Wang next to me what he had remembered. He scratched his head and laughed: "I didn't remember anything. The eggs given out today are quite fresh." ”

Seeing this situation, the two groups of people in our preparatory group who were originally very different reached a consensus on the first thing: it is useless to read the questions according to the standard answers, no matter how professional they are, because the old people will not be able to remember them at all.

Later, we changed all the test questions to scene questions, and even the PPTs were replaced with actual photos and short skits. The first question is a short clip performed by our social worker: a salesman in a suit came to the door and took the aunt's hand and said, "The pain in your knees is due to moisture. Our magnetic therapy bed can cure it after three months of sleeping. If you place an order now, you will receive a year's worth of free-range eggs." He asked, "What would be your first reaction if this happened to you?" ”As soon as the question was read out, the audience went crazy. Aunt Li was the first to stand up and raised her hand: "I encountered it last time! Ask me for eight thousand yuan! I video-recorded my daughter on the spot, but she was scolded and left! ”We followed this and asked the doctors from the community hospital to add that if the joints were painful, we should first go to the community hospital to take a X-ray to see if it was a degenerative disease or calcium deficiency. Magnetic therapy could at most relieve fatigue, but could not cure the disease at all. The elderly people present immediately remembered it. Even Uncle Zhang, who had always said before that "the magnetic therapy bed is really comfortable to sleep on," nodded beside him and said, "Oh, it turns out that thing can only relieve fatigue. I thought it could cure my old cold legs."

There were no strict rules for answering questions that day. If you wanted to stand up and say it, you would be given small prizes such as hand cream and a mouthwash cup if you answered correctly. No one would laugh if you answered incorrectly. The doctor would explain it to you on the spot. There was an interlude in the middle, and a question asked, "Can patients with high blood pressure drink alcohol?" ”Uncle Liu in the audience stood up and retorted: "I have been drinking liquor for thirty years and my blood pressure has always been very stable. You are wrong about this question! ”We didn’t directly say he was wrong. We asked a doctor to tell him on the spot: “It is true that there are a few people with strong metabolic abilities, and alcohol has little effect on blood pressure. However, most people’s blood pressure will first drop and then rise after drinking alcohol, which may easily induce cardiovascular and cerebrovascular accidents. If you are not sure, you can go to the community hospital for a free metabolic screening this week, and we will see the results. ”Later, Liu Shuzhen went for it, and it was found that the uric acid was twice as high as the normal value. Now he drinks at most a small cup of soaked wine every day, which is more effective than his daughter's advice for half a year.

I have also heard many people complain that this kind of competition is just for fun. If you really want to popularize science, you have to go to the door and talk to the elderly one-on-one. This does make sense. After all, many elderly people who live alone and have inconvenient legs and feet cannot reach the competition venue at all. It is also difficult for elderly people with hearing loss and vertigo to keep up with the pace of activities. But you can’t deny that the knowledge gained by everyone gathered together is more effective than a social worker coming alone to persuade someone ten times - after all, they are all pitfalls that people around them have stepped on, and empathy is inherently stronger. Half a month after the end of that competition, Uncle Wang, who used to go to health product lectures every day to collect eggs, encountered a door-to-door salesman of "anti-cancer oral liquid". He directly took the person to the social work station and said, "Tell our little social worker, if your product is as good as you say, we will make your routine into a topic for the next competition and everyone will comment." The salesman turned around and left. There is also Aunt Chen who used to be reluctant to throw away the leftovers. After that time, she only stir-fried a small plate of vegetables every time and dumped them when she couldn't finish them. When she met me, she said to me: "I always felt that it was a waste before. How much does it cost to stay in a hospital now?" It only costs a few bucks to pour a la carte, which is a good deal. ”

After all, the Senior Health Knowledge Competition should not be an "exam" in the first place, and there is no need to judge whether it is high or low. To put it bluntly, it is a platform for everyone to talk about all the health confusions and pitfalls they encounter in daily life, and professional people will check it. It can make an old man remember the magnetic therapy bed sold door-to-door, make an old man drink less alcohol, and make an old man no longer reluctant to throw out leftover vegetables. Even if only three or five old people remember a useful knowledge point after an activity, the activity was not in vain. This year we also plan to find a few old people who have been involved in health care products pits before to be "question writers" and compile the routines they encounter into questions. Then everyone will break it down together, which will be much more down-to-earth than sitting in the office and thinking about questions.