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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Older people's adherence to community-based group exercise programmes
— a multiple-case study | | Author(s) | Clare Killingback, Fotini Tsofliou, Carol Clark |
| Journal title | BMC Public Health 2017 17:115, 25 January 2017 |
| Pages | 12 pp |
| Source | https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4049-6 |
| Keywords | Exercise ; Participation ; Attitude ; Qualitative Studies ; South West England. |
| Annotation | Community-based group exercise programmes (CBGEP) utilising social supports have been shown to be one means of not only increasing activity levels for older people, but of also sustaining physical activity. A gap in the literature was identified concerning older people's long-term adherence to real-life CBGEP within a UK context. This study sought to address this gap, by understanding older people's ongoing adherence to CBGEP, with a view to gaining further insight about which factors contribute to enabling people to sustain their physical activity levels. The authors used a multiple case study research design, to understand adherence by 27 older people (age 60+) to three current CBGEP in the South-West of England. Qualitative data (participant observation, focus groups, documents and interviews) were collected and analysed using inductive thematic analysis, followed by the analytic technique of explanation building. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and used to set the context of the study. This study offers five insights into real-life programmes which have been successful in helping older people maintain adherence for a year or longer. These included: factors relating to the individual; the instructor (particularly personality, professionalism and humanised approach); programme design (including location, affordability, the use of music, and adaptable exercise content); social features which supported a sense of belonging; and participant perceived benefits (physical and psycho-social). These all served to explain older people's adherence to CBGEP. These factors related to participant adherence of CBGEP must be considered if we wish to support older people in sustaining a physically active lifestyle as they age. These findings are of interest to practitioners and policy makers in how CBGEPs serve to aid older people in maintaining a physically active lifestyle, with a view to preventing non-communicable diseases and in maintaining social connectivity. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-171031004 A |
| Classmark | CEA: TMB: DP: 3DP: 82Y * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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