Perceived Benefits and Barriers to Exercise in Older Adults Following a Community-based ExerciseTraining Program

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

2068 Healthy physical and psychological aging is associated with regular participation in exercise. PURPOSE: To examine the change in perceived benefits and barriers to exercise over 12 months in patients enrolled in a community-based exercise intervention delivered by family physicians. METHODS: The Step Test Exercise Prescription (STEP) is a 24-month, stratified, clustered randomized clinical trial, with 360 older adults aged 50 to 86 years from 40 family practices in four provinces of Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Nova Scotia). Secondary outcomes included perceived benefits and barriers to exercise measured by the Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale, a 43-item questionnaire utilizing a 4-point Likert scale with anchors of “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” (possible range of scores 43 to 172). The higher the score, the more positively exercise is perceived. The possible ranges of scores on the Benefits (29-item) and Barriers (14-item) subscales are between 29 and 116, and 14 and 56, respectively; the higher the score, the greater the perception of benefits and barriers to exercise. RESULTS: Subjects were healthy, community dwelling older men (42.8%) and women (57.2%) with a mean age of 64.9 ± 7.1 years. Overall, the mean score for all 43 items did not significantly change from baseline to follow-up (118.5 ± 10.2 and 118.4 ± 9.6, respectively). However, the mean score for the Benefits scale increased significantly (p<.001) from baseline (91.1 ± 11.8) to follow-up (92.9 ± 12.1) The greatest benefits of exercise reported by older adults were 1) increasing level of physical fitness and muscle strength, 2) improving functioning of cardiovascular system, and 3) a sense of personal accomplishment. Barrier scores decreased significantly (p<.001) from baseline (27.3 ± 5.4) to 12 months (25.5 ± 6.1). The top three barriers to exercise were 1) lack of stamina, 2) fatigued by exercise, and 3) exercise is hard work. CONCLUSION: The major benefit of exercise for older adults was to improve physical functioning, while the major barrier to exercise was lack of stamina/strength. Overall, the exercise intervention improved both perceived benefits and barriers to exercise among older adults. Supported by CIHR.