PROMOTE

The subproject PROMOTE has the objective to develop different types of interventions to promote physical activity behavior in older adults and compare their effectiveness.

Sonia Lippke zu AEQUIPA/PROMOTE


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Background

Regular physical activity promotes the maintenance of health and well-being. However, only a minority of older adults report to be sufficiently physical active. Previous interventions to increase the level of physical activity in the population have had only limited success. One possible reason for the insufficient results may be that many interventions follow a `one size fits all` approach and had not been tailored enough to the individual requirements and needs of the participants. The use of modern technologies (e.g. step counters; web-based services) to promote physical activity could facilitate tailoring activity programs to individual requirements, increase motivation for physical activity and enable objective monitoring of the activity. The optimal form of customization and monitoring, especially for older people, is still unclear. This is where the PROMOTE project comes in.

Approach

PROMOTE compares the effects of two tailored web-based 10-week interventions (intervention group 1 gets access to the website with a movement diary; intervention group 2: the website is additionally linked to a pedometer) with a waiting list control group. The intervention is developed in accordance with the recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to promote physical activity. Dependent variables are indicators of healthy ageing (e.g. fitness, psychological well-being, cognitive performance, social participation, health behavior). The intervention is tailored to the age, gender, current fitness and motivation of the participant.

Results of the first funding period

  • Indicators of healthy ageing improved significantly in all three groups
  • Higher rates of behavioral change (especially in endurance and balance) in the two intervention groups compared to the waiting list control group
  • Higher drop-out rates of participants with little technical experience

Work programme of the second funding phase

First results indicate that the developed web-based intervention has positive effects on older individuals. In the first funding phase, a large number of persons who were already active took part in the PROMOTE intervention. For this reason, in the second funding phase the effectiveness of the developed intervention will be examined in physically inactive persons. Further, the IT intervention will be adapted and a paper-based intervention will be offered to enable an easy-to-use access for persons with little technical experience.

Research team

Prof. Dr. Sonia Lippke, Jacobs University Bremen (project leader)
Dr. Claudia Pischke, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS (project leader)
Prof. Dr. Claudia Voelcker-Rehage, TU Chemnitz
Jochen Meyer, OFFIS – Institute for Information Technology
Nastassja Häßler - TU Chemnitz
Kai von Holdt, OFFIS – Institute for Information Technology
Saskia Müllmann, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS
Manuela Peters, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS
Tiara Ratz, Jacobs University Bremen

Contact

Prof. Dr. Sonia Lippke
Phone: +49 421 200-4730
Email: s.lippke(at)jacobs-university.de