Sustainability of evidence-based community-based physical activity programs for older adults: lessons from Active for Life

Abstract

Program sustainability in community and healthcare settings is critical to realizing the translation of research into practice. The purpose of this study is to describe the implementation and assessment of an intervention to increase organizational maintenance of evidence-based physical activity programs and the factors that impede or facilitate sustainability. All organizations implemented a sustainability action plan that included identifying factors related to sustainability, examining resources available, identifying program modifications to enhance sustainability, and long-term action planning. A mixed methods approach was used. Organizational (n = 12 sites) ability to demonstrate program effectiveness, align priorities with the organizational mission, and integrate the program within the existing infrastructure were strengths related to sustainability. Sites were more optimistic about program sustainability when they had less reliance on internal financial, but more reliance on internal human resources to run the program post-funding. The study resulted in a number of tools that can help community organizations plan for sustainability of physical activity programs.

Improving physical activity program adoption using integrated research-practice partnerships: an effectiveness-implementation trial

“…At the organizational level, though, we collected intent of continued program delivery. Previous research has used the intention to continue program delivery as a system-level indicator of maintenance [47,48]. We also direct readers to a qualitative paper on this topic, including details on perceptions of program maintenance [49].…”

Community Based Programs Sustainability. A Multidimensional Analysis of Sustainability Factors

“…Community based programs are increasingly scrutinized in the literature literature [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] in the broader context of non-profit sector sustainability [16,17]. There are several reasons why program sustainability is important: (1) terminating an effective program leads to negative effects for both the community involved and for host organization; (2) program initiation costs are high; and (3) community experiencing unexpected program termination lose trust when future programs are to be introduced [18].…”

Uptake of evidence-based physical activity programs: comparing perceptions of adopters and nonadopters

“…For ALED, even though materials were prepackaged, health educators reported being overwhelmed with the amount of time needed for program preparation. This challenge aligns with reports from other health educators delivering in national evaluations of ALED [51][52][53]. The paperwork associated with registration, homework assignments, and the ongoing data entry of behavior tracking were perceived as time-consuming and burdensome for both staff and participants.…”