The overarching goals of this research are to screen older persons living in the community to identify those who are mobile but at increased risk of future disability, to evaluate limitations to participating in an exercise program, and to describe the kind of exercise program that would be appropriate. Specific questions to be addressed include: 1. What is the effectiveness of a three-level screening and recruitment program that progresses from a telephone screen, to a home evaluation, to a clinic exam? 1. What proportion of people who say that they can walk a mile and climb stairs can actually walk 400 meters? 2. What proportion of potentially eligible people (meeting screening criteria below) are already walking for exercise or doing other forms of exercise? 3. What are the diseases, physical impairments, or symptoms that will prevent potentially eligible people from participating in an exercise program or some aspect of the program? 4. Among those who can exercise, what specific exercises can they do and at what level of intensity can they begin these exercises? 5. What is the readiness of this group of persons to begin an exercise program and what disease, functional, and psychosocial characteristics are associated with readiness to exercise? We have screened and evaluated study subjects using a 3-stage approach. The subjects for this pilot study are a convenience sample of volunteers who met specific criteria. Subjects were entered into the screening process until 101 had qualified for and completed the full three stages of evaluation. Results from this study were presented at the annual meeting of the Gerotological Society of America in November, 2001 and a group of papers from that symposium were published in 2003 in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity.
| Cohen-Mansfield, Jiska; Marx, Marcia S; Biddison, James R et al. (2004) Socio-environmental exercise preferences among older adults. Prev Med 38:804-11 |
