Abstract
BackgroundActive aging has been established as a policy goal for aging societies. We define active aging at the individual level as striving for elements of well-being through activities in relation to a person’s goals, functional capacities and opportunities. Increasing evidence suggests that any meaningful activity is beneficial for different aspects of well-being in older people. The aim of the present randomized controlled trial is to test the feasibility and effectiveness of a one-year community-based intervention on active aging. The AGNES intervention aims at increasing older peoples’ participation in self-selected valued activities.MethodsThe proposed study is a two-arm single-blinded randomized controlled trial. The intervention group receives individually tailored counselling for an active life (one face-to-face session, four phone calls and supportive written material) and the control group written general health information only. Two hundred older adults aged 75- and 80- year old, with intermediate mobility function and without cognitive impairment, living independently in the municipality of Jyväskylä, Finland, are recruited and randomized with a 1:1 allocation to the intervention and control group. Randomization is computer-generated stratified by sex and age. The primary outcome is active aging and secondary outcomes are well-being, depressive symptoms, quality of life, personal goals, mobility and physical activity. Measures are administered at pre-trial, mid-trial (at 6 months) and post-trial (12 months after baseline).DiscussionThe AGNES intervention study will provide new knowledge on the effects of individualized counselling on active aging and the potential of older people to promote their own well-being.Trial registrationThe trial is registered at ISRCTN - ISRCTN16172390: Promoting well-being through active aging.
Highlights
Active aging has been established as a policy goal for aging societies
Health Organization (WHO) defined the goal of active aging policy in 2002 as follows: “Active aging is the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age”
The aim of this study is to develop an individualized counselling intervention that supports older individuals to increase their participation in self-selected valued activities and their involvement in meaningful lifesituations and to test its feasibility and effectiveness
Summary
Setting The study is community-based and targets older people whose life-space mobility is intermediate (excluding the most active and most inactive), have no cognitive impairment, and live independently in the municipality of Jyväskylä, Finland. Autonomy in outdoor mobility Perceived sense of autonomy in out-of-home activities, that is, the feeling of having control over the decision to go out whenever, wherever, and one wants, is assessed pre- and post-trial with the ‘autonomy outdoors’ subscale of the Impact on Participation and Autonomy questionnaire (IPA), which has been validated [56, 57] Participants rate their perceived opportunities for visiting relatives and friends, making trips and traveling, spending leisure time, meeting other people, and living life the way they want. We will test the model at mid- and post- trial with active aging as the primary dependent variable, the intervention condition as the independent variable, and the psychological variables (perceived autonomy support, autonomous motivation, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and intentions) as multiple mediators.
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