There was no evidence for a relationship between intervention effectiveness and mode of delivery or number of intervention contacts ; however , interventions which involved individually tailoring with personalized activity goals or provision of information about local opportunities in the environment may be more effective .
Conclusions Interventions in adults aged 55 to 70 years led to long term improvements in physical activity at 12 months ; however , maintenance beyond this is unclear .
Identified physical activity improvements are likely to have substantial health benefits in reducing the risk of age-related illnesses .
Background Retirement represents a major transitional life stage in middle to older age .
Changes in physical activity typically accompany this transition , which has significant consequences for health and well-being .
The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the evidence for the effect of interventions to promote physical activity in adults aged 55 to 70 years , focusing on studies that reported long-term effectiveness .
Ongoing physical activity advice by humans versus computers: the Community Health Advice by Telephone (CHAT) trial.
PURPOSE Given the prevalence of physical inactivity among American adults , convenient , low-cost interventions are strongly indicated . This study determined the 6- and 12-month effectiveness of telephone interventions delivered by health educators or by an automated computer system in promoting physical activity . DESIGN Initially inactive men and women age 55 years and older ( N = 218 ) in stable health participated . Participants were r and omly assigned to human advice , automated advice , or health education control . MEASURES The vali date d 7-day physical activity recall interview was used to estimate minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity . Physical activity differences by experimental arm were verified on a r and om sub sample via accelerometry . RESULTS Using intention-to-treat analysis , at 6 months , participants in both interventions , although not differing from one another , showed significant improvements in weekly physical activity compared with controls . These differences were generally maintained at 12 months , with both intervention arms remaining above the target of 150 min per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity on average . CONCLUSION Automated telephone-linked delivery systems represent an effective alternative for delivering physical activity advice to inactive older adults
There was no evidence for a relationship between intervention effectiveness and mode of delivery or number of intervention contacts ; however , interventions which involved individually tailoring with personalized activity goals or provision of information about local opportunities in the environment may be more effective .
Conclusions Interventions in adults aged 55 to 70 years led to long term improvements in physical activity at 12 months ; however , maintenance beyond this is unclear .
Identified physical activity improvements are likely to have substantial health benefits in reducing the risk of age-related illnesses .
Background Retirement represents a major transitional life stage in middle to older age .
Changes in physical activity typically accompany this transition , which has significant consequences for health and well-being .
The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the evidence for the effect of interventions to promote physical activity in adults aged 55 to 70 years , focusing on studies that reported long-term effectiveness .