Promoting physical activity for older adults - The challenges for changing behavior

This article addresses the formidable topic of promoting physical activity among older adults. The primary focus is on older adults who are at risk for or who have evidence of functional limitations or physical disabilities that often accompany chronic disease; where relevant, findings about healthy older adults are also discussed. All of these individuals experience barriers for physical activity that range from cultural expectations to complex symptoms that accompany the disablement process. Conducting physical activity programs in diverse settings and utilizing multiple channels of communication help to alleviate some of these barriers. A major emphasis of the article concerns behavior change strategies necessary in interventions for at-risk older adults with diverse needs and individual differences. Based on recent investigations, several challenges for research are proposed. It is suggested that further attention should be directed toward individualized tailoring of programs that recognize unique barriers in older adults such as intermittent illness and the burden of caregiving. Furthermore, research on physical activity interventions should examine whether they will benefit from collaborative, social problem-solving models of behavior change that link individual and group-mediated interventions. The final challenge proposed is research to examine viable ways of linking these interventions to population-based health promotion activity programs.