Differences between completely physically inactive and low active older men and their response to an exercise intervention: the Veterans LIFE study.

Background: Physical activity interventions typically do not report behavioral changes in activity sub-groups. The aim of this study was to compare baseline differences and changes in physical activity between truly physically inactive men and low active men enrolled in a twelve-month, home-based physical activity intervention.

Methods: Veterans with a mean age of 77.

Long-term changes in physical activity following a one-year home-based physical activity counseling program in older adults with multiple morbidities.

This study assessed the sustained effect of a physical activity (PA) counseling intervention on PA one year after intervention, predictors of sustained PA participation, and three classes of post-intervention PA trajectories (improvers, maintainers, and decliners) in 238 older Veterans. Declines in minutes of PA from 12 to 24 months were observed for both the treatment and control arms of the study. PA at 12 months was the strongest predictor of post-intervention changes in PA.

Individual progress toward self-selected goals among older adults enrolled in a physical activity counseling intervention.

The purpose of this study was to examine what happens to goals over the course of a physical activity counseling trial in older veterans. At baseline, participants (N = 313) identified 1 health-related goal and 1 walking goal for their participation in the study and rated where they perceived themselves to be relative to that goal at the current time. They rated their current status on these same goals again at 6 and 12 mo.

Change in goal ratings as a mediating variable between self-efficacy and physical activity in older men.

Background: Few studies have examined the associations between exercise self-efficacy, goals, and physical activity over time.

Purpose: This study examines whether self-selected goals mediate the changes in exercise self-efficacy on physical activity over 12 months.

Methods: Data are derived from 313 older men participating in the Veterans LIFE Study.

The Veterans Learning to Improve Fitness and Function in Elders Study: a randomized trial of primary care-based physical activity counseling for older men.

Objectives: To determine the effects of primary care-based, multicomponent physical activity counseling (PAC) promoting physical activity (PA) guidelines on gait speed and related measures of PA and function in older veterans.

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Veterans Affairs Medical Center of Durham, North Carolina.

Effect of physical activity guidelines on physical function in older adults.

Objectives: To determine whether elderly people who meet national guidelines have higher physical function (PF) scores than those who do not and the effect on functional trajectory when physical activity (PA) levels change from above to below this threshold, or vice versa.

Design: Pooled data.

Setting: Two 6-month randomized controlled trials aimed at increasing PA in adults.

Project LIFE--Learning to Improve Fitness and Function in Elders: methods, design, and baseline characteristics of randomized trial.

Insufficient levels of physical activity have significant clinical consequences. Primary care settings typically do not emphasize physical activity counseling. We describe the design, methods, and baseline characteristics of "Learning to Improve Fitness and Function in Elders," a two-armed randomized controlled trial that assesses whether physical activity counseling improves the physical function of older veterans.

Effect of telephone exercise counseling on frailty in older veterans: project LIFE.

This study sought to determine if telephone exercise counseling attenuates frailty in older, male veterans through increased levels of physical activity. Eighty-one elderly, male veterans (age = 78.4 +/- 4.

Physical function in sedentary and exercising older veterans as compared to national norms.

We examined the associations between sedentary older veterans, those regularly involved in an outpatient exercise program and physical function. Sedentary and currently exercising older veterans performed a 30 s chair-stand test and 6 min walk test as part of an exercise program. Test results were then compared to national norms.

Exercise adherence and 10-year mortality in chronically ill older adults.

Objectives: To compare mortality of adherents and nonadherents of an exercise program.

Design: Prospective intervention study.

Setting: Supervised geriatric fitness program called Gerofit.