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 .
Influence of retirement on leisure-time physical activity: the atherosclerosis risk in communities study.
Cross-sectional data suggest that leisure-time physical activity may increase during retirement . Prospect i ve population -based studies are necessary to characterize leisure activity patterns through retirement among the same persons to verify this observation . Therefore , the purpose of this study was to describe the influence of retirement on leisure activity using data from Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study cohort participants aged 45 - 64 years at baseline .  Physical activity was measured by the Baecke question naire  in 1,825 African-American and 5,957 White participants who were working at the initial visit ( 1986 - 1989 ) and either retired or working 6 years later ( 1993 - 1995 ) . Participants who retired during follow-up were more likely to increase their sport participation and television watching than those who continued to work over the 6-year period . Among those reporting sport or exercise at baseline , those retiring over follow-up were more likely to maintain their sport and exercise participation than those who continued to work across race-gender groups . Among those not reporting sport or exercise at baseline , those who retired were more likely to adopt activity than those who continued to work except for African-American women . In this study , retirement was associated with gains in sport and exercise participation as well as television watching
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 .