Older persons’ experiences of a home-based exercise program with behavioral change support

Abstract

With support from physiotherapists (PTs), home-based exercise can be adapted to individual circumstances in a meaningful way. Including exercises in everyday life and daily routines could support the experience of being stronger, result in better physical functioning, and give hope for an extended active life in old age.

The perceptions of older adults living with chronic musculoskeletal pain about participating in an intervention based on a behavioral medicine approach to physical therapy

“…Moreover, these findings are also in line with the results from a previous study, where older adults expressed their experience that the exercise diary reinforced their motivation to perform the exercises (Arkkukangas et al, 2017).…”

“…The findings from this study demonstrate that the support and motivation of PTs were crucial for successful implementation of the intervention and for the outcomes of participants. PT personality traits, competence and tolerance facilitate exercise performance among older people (Arkkukangas et al, 2017;Lindelof, Karlsson, and Lundman, 2012). The participants perceived the PT as a 'motivator' and a coach and the PT was observed to provide expert knowledge, having the necessary attribute of being experienced as a competent and tolerant person.…”

“…Knowledge of how older people experience participation in a home-based intervention that focuses on behavior changes is sparse (Arkkukangas et al, 2017). To the best of our knowledge, no study has explored how older adults living with chronic pain perceive being participants in a BMPI.…”

“…Despite the negative impacts chronic pain may have on health, everyday life activities, and the quality of life of an older person, and the economic burden this major public health problem represents for society, chronic pain remains underdiagnosed and undertreated (Reid, Eccleston, and Pillemer, 2015). Recently, there has been an increased interest in qualitative studies that explore the experiences of patients living with chronic pain (Pietila, Holmner, Stalnacke, Enthoven, and Stenberg, 2018), the participation of older people in physical activity and exercise programs (Booth et al, 2017;Karlsson et al, 2018), or their experiences of participating in home-based exercise programs (Arkkukangas et al, 2017). However, although research interest has increased, knowledge of how older people experience their participation in interventions based on a behavioral medicine approach to physiotherapy, which further will be defined as BMPI, is lacking.…”

Influence of strength training and multicomponent training on the functionality of older adults: systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Postural imbalance in elderly subjects may indicate reduced ability to recover from small postural disorders, which may be a fall predictive factor 4 . It is important to detect the risks of falling in order to prevent them 5,6 .…”