Keep Active Minnesota
Condition: Physical Activity Maintenance
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The purpose of this study is to determine whether a new phone and mail based coaching/support
      program that has been developed is more effective in helping people stay physically active
      than existing programs that are currently available to all HealthPartners members. We
      hypothesize that the intervention program will lead to a greater likelihood of physical
      activity maintenance among moderately active older adults than a usual care condition.
    

Detailed description: 
      The benefits of physical activity for adults are well established, but less than one-third of
      older adults in the U.S. have achieved recommended levels of physical activity despite
      widespread clinical recommendations to increase physical activity in recent years.
      Clinic-based approaches to increasing physical activity are expensive, difficult to implement
      in busy practice settings, and have limited reach. Moreover, evidence of the efficacy of such
      approaches is equivocal. A population based approach may be a more effective and less costly
      strategy to increase levels of physical activity in older adults. Population studies of
      physical activity have demonstrated that each year, many sedentary older adults initiate
      physical activity, but a nearly equal number of those who were active become sedentary. Among
      older adults initiating physical activity, only half continue to be active 3 months later.

      We hypothesize that a population based approach that emphasizes physical activity maintenance
      can substantially increase physical activity levels in a defined populations of older adults.
      This hypothesis is tested in a 24-month randomized trial evaluating an innovative,
      theory-based behavioral intervention to maintain physical activity in a random sample of
      50-70 year old adults who have recently become at least moderately active. One thousand
      (1000) subjects will be randomized to one of two experimental groups: 1) a "usual care"
      control group, and 2) an interactive phone- and mail-based intervention program tailored to
      maintaining physical activity in older adults. The primary outcome measures are: 1) physical
      activity, assessed as kcals/wk expenditure; and 2) physical activity maintenance, assessed as
      follow-up kcals/wk expenditure relative to baseline. Careful measurement of the penetration
      of the intervention into a well characterized older adult population, and the costs of the
      intervention, will be assessed. Psychosocial and behavioral mediators of physical activity
      maintenance will also be examined.

      Study results will be relevant to policy makers, health promotion practitioners and health
      plans, and will provide practical information on the effectiveness, population penetration,
      and costs of an intervention designed to maximize population levels of physical activity
      among older adults.
    

Intervention name(s): Phone counseling with written materials
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Participation in phone/mail counseling to maintain physical activity
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Keywords: Physical activity maintenance; Interactive phone and mail-based intervention; Older adults