Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 39, Issue 5, November 2004, Pages 1056-1061
Preventive Medicine

Review
Barriers and motivations to exercise in older adults

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2004.04.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Although exercise is an established component in the management of many chronic diseases associated with aging, activity levels tend to progressively decline with increasing age. Given the growing proportion of older adults, these suboptimal levels of physical activity represent an increasing public health problem. The predicators of adherence elucidated in younger adults are unreliable in elderly populations. Age-specific barriers and motivators unique to this cohort are relevant and must be acknowledged. The identification of reliable predictors of exercise adherence will allow healthcare providers to effectively intervene and change patterns of physical activity in sedentary elderly. In particular, because older patients respect their physician's advice and have regular contact with their family doctor, physicians can play a key and pivotal role in the initiation and maintenance of exercise behavior among the older population.

Section snippets

Elderly pose unique challenge

Although the benefits of regular physical activity have been studied extensively, researchers have only recently examined the determinants of physical activity in special populations such as the elderly. The focus of earlier exercise research was centered on healthy young and middle-aged white men [9]. As research into the older population has progressed, it is apparent that physical activity behavior in older adults is associated with diverse factors from multiple domains. Not surprisingly,

Barriers to exercise

Thus, acknowledging the unique challenges and clarifying the relevant issues is an essential step in developing a strategy to facilitate exercise in the elderly population. Yet, regardless of an individual's beliefs in the benefits of regular exercise, many barriers, real or perceived, exist which represent obstacles to the adoption and maintenance of exercise behavior. O'Neill and Reid [11] found that 87% of the elderly have at least one barrier to prohibit exercise participation.

An overview

Motivators for exercise

Because of the complex interaction between the large number of potential variables associated with behavioral change, many of the barriers to exercise for the older adult can actually serve as motivators to exercise activity. In their research, Cohen-Mansfield et al. [13] noted barriers to exercise to be highly related to motivators. For example, deteriorating health, which can reduce an older adult's ability to exercise, was also frequently cited as a motivator for increasing physical

Discussion

Given the large cohort of aging Americans, the number of older adults experiencing chronic disease and disability will continue to increase substantially over the next few decades. Consequently, maintaining health and postponing the onset of debilitating disease for as long as possible is necessary to avoid morbidity later in life. Compressing morbidity can be accomplished through exercise and regular physical activity. Although the Surgeon General's message was disseminated in 1996, adherence

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