Physical Activity Interventions Among Older Adults: A Literature Review

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) is important in the management of chronic illness among older adults worldwide. Researchers have conducted several intervention studies to increase PA behavior in this population. This review of the past 12 years of relevant PA intervention research among adults age 60 and older systematically summarized research findings, identified characteristics of successful interventions, and proposed areas of future research. Twenty studies were reviewed for this paper, most employing a combination cognitive-behavioral intervention design. Cognitive-based only and combination interventions were more successful in changing PA behavior; however, behavioral-based interventions demonstrated more long-term changes in PA behavior. Among theory-based interventions, self-efficacy was the most commonly operationalized construct. Findings from this review may inform future primary research to promote PA behavior among older adults, as well as gerontological clinical practice.

Interventions to promote or maintain physical activity during and after the transition to retirement: an evidence synthesis

“…185 Three other reviews examined relationships/associations between life changes more generally (including retirement) and physical activity. [186][187][188] A third group of relevant reviews considered populations of older adults (without referring to retirement) using a range of age inclusion criteria, 12,[189][190][191][192][193][194][195][196] with one specifically focusing on the potential benefits of voluntary work. 190 The first of the two other reviews of the retirement transition 1 examined 19 longitudinal or cross-sectional studies comparing retired adults with those not retired or longitudinal studies across the retirement transition (with no age parameters for inclusion set).…”

Increasing physical activity in older adults: Walking by prescription in primary care

“…The mainly concern is how to maintain the achieved behaviour for a long run. The physical activity behaviour of walking seems to be very specific and therefore, for single older adults, the combined intervention of forming goal intentions with action planning and coping planning was effective for initiating and maintaining physical activity levels, as suggested in van Stralen et al (2009) andChase (2013) reviews. Contrary to findings in French et al (2014) systematic review, in the absence of cognitive limitations older adults seem to benefit from planning when, where, and how to perform their daily walking behaviour, just has suggested by the Health Action Process Approach model (HAPA; Schwarzer, 2008).…”

“…However, according to French, Olander, Chisholm, and Mc Sharry (2014), to plan or control behaviour may require more effort which in turn may explain the smaller results observed in physical activity interventions with older adults, possibly due to decreases in executive function in this specific age group. Additionally, goal setting and self-monitoring using a pedometer is a behavioural based intervention that seems to be associated with significant increases in physical activity (Bravata et al, 2007), long-term changes in physical activity behaviour (Chase, 2013), and working as a possible motivational strategy to maintain older adults in physical activity interventions (McMurdo et al, 2010). Moreover, despite that cognitive based interventions and the combination of behavioural and cognitive interventions were successful in changing physical activity behaviour (Chase, 2013), more research concerning action planning and coping planning influence on physical activity in healthy older adults is needed (van Stralen et al, 2009).…”

“…In the present study, we tested three different behavioural and cognitive strategies: goal intention intervention (G), action planning intervention (AP) and action planning and coping planning intervention (CP). Based on recent research (Chase, 2013;van Stralen et al, 2009), we expect that the combined strategies will be more effective in increasing older adults' walking behaviour than single behavioural or cognitive strategies.…”

Gamification of Older Adults’ Physical Activity: An Eight-Week Study

“…One of the many reasons for this is because many individuals ≥50 years are physically inactive and do not meet the national guidelines for PA [5]. Motivation of older adults to participate in PA has been studied by many researchers [2,9,12,45,53,54]; however, limited research has been done on motivation as part of technology facilitation for older adults' PA.…”