Profiles of physical activity biographies in relation to life and aging satisfaction in older adults: longitudinal findings.

Background: While there is substantial evidence on the relationship between life satisfaction and present physical activity (PA), less is known about which specific PA biographies are associated with a high quality of life and aging satisfaction. Our objective was to identify classes of PA biographies that may be associated with life and aging satisfaction.

Methods: In this longitudinal study, PA biographies were assessed retrospectively as a baseline, followed by assessments of life and aging satisfaction at six and twelve months in 418 adults aged 60-95.

Physical exercise, sickness absence and subjective employability: An 8-year longitudinal observational study among musculoskeletal patients.

Objective: Physical exercise recommendations become particularly effective when embedded into medical rehabilitation. However, little is known about long-term behaviour maintenance and its effect on sickness absence and subjective employability. The current longitudinal observational study investigated self-reported physical exercise, sickness absence and subjective employability over a period of 8 years.

Revisiting self-regulatory techniques to promote physical activity in older adults: null-findings from a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: A randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to evaluate a three-hour face-to-face physical activity (PA) intervention in community-dwelling older German adults with four groups: The intervention group (IG) received behaviour change techniques (BCTs) based on the health action process approach plus a views-on-ageing component to increase PA. The second intervention group 'planning' (IGpl) contained the same BCTs, only substituted the views-on-ageing component against an additional planning task. An active control group received the same BCTs, however, targeting volunteering instead of PA.

Translating good intentions into physical activity: older adults with low prospective memory ability profit from planning.

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to perform an intended action in the future and is necessary for regular physical activity (PA). For older adults with declining PM, planning strategies may help them to act upon their intentions. This study investigates PM as a moderator in a mediation process: intention predicting PA via planning.

Precipitation and Physical Activity in Older Adults: The Moderating Role of Functional Mobility and Physical Activity Intentions.

Objectives: Physical activity is a key health behavior that reduces disease risk, and yet most older adults are not very active. This study examined time-varying associations between physical activity and a recognized barrier, namely, precipitation. And it examined the moderating role of physical activity intentions and functional mobility on precipitation-physical activity associations.

Short-Term Buffers, but Long-Term Suffers? Differential Effects of Negative Self-Perceptions of Aging Following Serious Health Events.

Objectives: Large longitudinal studies show that negative self-perceptions of aging can be detrimental for health outcomes. However, negative self-perceptions of aging (i.e.

Future Directions in the Study of Health Behavior among Older Adults.

The study of health behaviors and fostering health-behavior change is an important endeavor even in old age. The aim of this viewpoint article is threefold. First, we use a broad perspective for the definition of health behaviors to capture all relevant aspects of health-behavior change in older adults.

A randomized controlled trial to promote volunteering in older adults.

Volunteering is presumed to confer health benefits, but interventions to encourage older adults to volunteer are sparse. Therefore, a randomized controlled trial with 280 community-dwelling older German adults was conducted to test the effects of a theory-based social-cognitive intervention against a passive waiting-list control group and an active control intervention designed to motivate physical activity. Self-reports of weekly volunteering minutes were assessed at baseline (5 weeks before the intervention) as well as 2 and 6 weeks after the intervention.

What do targeting positive views on ageing add to a physical activity intervention in older adults? Results from a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: Physical activity is a key factor for healthy ageing, yet many older people lead a sedentary lifestyle. Traditional physical activity interventions do not consider the specific needs and views of older adults. As views on ageing are known to be related to health behaviours, the current study evaluates the effectiveness of prompting positive views on ageing within a physical activity intervention.

Multiple illness perceptions in older adults: effects on physical functioning and medication adherence.

Objective: Previous research on illness perceptions has focused on single illnesses, but most adults over 65 suffer from multiple illnesses (multimorbidity). This study tests three competing operationalisations of multiple illness perceptions in predicting physical functioning and adherence: (1) main effects and interactions model; (2) peak model with effects of the most prominent illness perception; and (3) combined model with averaged illness perceptions over multiple illnesses.

Design: Longitudinal study in N = 215 individuals (65-86 years) with multimorbidity at two measurement points over six months.

How do negative self-perceptions of aging become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Recent studies have provided considerable evidence on long-term effects of self-perceptions of aging (SPA) on indicators of successful aging such as health or life satisfaction. To date, little is known about the mechanisms underlying these effects. This study therefore examined whether negative SPA impair the use of self-regulation strategies that include selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) in case of a serious health event and thus turn into self-fulfilling prophecies for health and life satisfaction.

An age-tailored intervention sustains physical activity changes in older adults: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: A randomized controlled trial compared an age-tailored intervention to increase physical activity levels in older adults to an age-neutral intervention.

Purpose: Both interventions communicated activity planning strategies and messages to improve self-efficacy. On top of this, the age-tailored intervention also included two lifespan components that targeted present orientation and emotional focus, and fostered strategies of selection, optimization, and compensation.

Interactive effects of social support and social conflict on medication adherence in multimorbid older adults.

With increasing age and multimorbidity, medication regimens become demanding, potentially resulting in suboptimal adherence. Social support has been discussed as a predictor of adherence, but previous findings are inconsistent. The study examines general social support, medication-specific social support, and social conflict as predictors of adherence at two points in time (6 months apart) to test the mobilization and social conflict hypotheses.

Contextual and individual predictors of physical activity: Interactions between environmental factors and health cognitions.

Objective: Although health behavior theories assume a role of the context in health behavior self-regulation, this role is often weakly specified and rarely examined. The two studies in this article test whether properties of the environment (districts) affect if and how health-related cognitions are translated into physical activity.

Methods: Multilevel modeling was used to examine the assumed cross-level interactions.

Older peoples' attitudes towards euthanasia and an end-of-life pill in The Netherlands: 2001-2009.

Introduction: With an ageing population, end-of-life care is increasing in importance. The present work investigated characteristics and time trends of older peoples' attitudes towards euthanasia and an end-of-life pill.

Methods: Three samples aged 64 years or older from the Longitudinal Ageing Study Amsterdam (N=1284 (2001), N=1303 (2005) and N=1245 (2008)) were studied.

Future time perspective and health behaviors: temporal framing of self-regulatory processes in physical exercise and dietary behaviors.

Background: Limitations in perceived lifetime can undermine long-term goal striving. Planning is supposed to translate intentions into health behaviors and to operate as a compensatory strategy to overcome goal striving deficits associated with a limited time perspective.

Purpose: Two longitudinal studies were conducted examining the compensatory role of planning: an online survey on fruit and vegetable consumption (N = 909; 16-78 years; follow-up at 4 months) and a questionnaire study on physical exercise in older adults (N = 289; 60-95 years, over a half-year period).

Affective and health-related outcome expectancies for physical activity in older adults.

This study tests the effects of affective and health-related outcome expectancies on physical exercise, assuming stronger direct and indirect (via intention) effects from affective outcome expectancy to physical exercise than from health-related outcome expectancy to exercise. Physical exercise and social cognitive variables were assessed at baseline, and 6- and 12-month follow-up in 335 older adults (60-95 years of age). Applying structural equation modelling, there was a direct effect from affective, but not from health-related outcome expectancy on intentions and behaviour.

Physical activity intervention in older adults: does a participating partner make a difference?

Social integration and social support are expected to facilitate the adoption and maintenance of physical activity. In the context of a physical activity intervention, we distinguished three partner status groups, serving as an indicator of social integration. It was hypothesized that individuals whose partner also participated in the intervention, as opposed to individuals whose partners did not participate, or individuals without an intimate partner, would benefit more in terms of their physical activity.

Synergistic effect of social support and self-efficacy on physical exercise in older adults.

The purpose of the current study was to examine whether the effects of social support on physical exercise in older adults depend on individual perceptions of self-efficacy. Three hundred nine older German adults (age 65-85) were assessed at 3 points in time (3 months apart). In hierarchical-regression analyses, support received from friends and exercise self-efficacy were specified as predictors of exercise frequency while baseline exercise, sex, age, and physical functioning were controlled for.

Intervention-engagement and its role in the effectiveness of stage-matched interventions promoting physical exercise.

Intervention-engagement has received little attention in sports medicine as well as research and promotion of physical exercise. The construct is important, however, in the understanding of why interventions work. This study aimed at shedding more light on the interplay of engagement and the subsequent effectiveness of physical exercise interventions.

Long-term adherence to a physical activity intervention: the role of telephone-assisted vs. self-administered coping plans and strategy use.

Objective: This study investigated the role of coping plans and the use of selection, optimisation and compensation (SOC) strategies within an experimental evaluation of a 26-week physical exercise intervention.

Methods: Older women (N=86, M (age)=73.7 years) were randomly assigned to a telephone-assisted or a self-administered coping planning intervention after 6 weeks' participation in an exercise programme.

Self-efficacy and multiple illness representations in older adults: a multilevel approach.

Objectives: The Common-Sense Model assumes that individuals form subjective representations about their illnesses, which in turn guide cognitive and behavioural responses. This assumption is complicated in individuals with multimorbidity, and it is an open question to which degree illness-specific and person-level factors determine the representations of specific illnesses. This study examines the structure and interrelations of illness representations in multimorbidity employing a hierarchical framework based on Cognitive Theory.

Maintaining autonomy despite multimorbidity: self-efficacy and the two faces of social support.

Multimorbidity-the co-occurrence of multiple illnesses-is a frequent condition in older adults and poses serious threats to autonomy. In order to identify resources for autonomy despite multimorbidity, our longitudinal study tested main and interaction effects of personal and social resources (self-efficacy and social support) on maintaining autonomy. Three hundred and nine individuals (aged 65-85 years) with multiple illnesses completed measures of self-efficacy beliefs, received instrumental social support and perceptions of autonomy.

Changes in functional health, changes in medication beliefs, and medication adherence.

Objective: Medication adherence often lies below recommendations although it is crucial for effective therapies, particularly in older adults with multiple illnesses. Medication beliefs are important factors for individual adherence, but little is known about their origin. We examine whether changes in functional health predict changes in medication beliefs, and whether such changes in beliefs predict subsequent medication adherence.

Medication beliefs predict medication adherence in older adults with multiple illnesses.

Objective: To examine factors preventing medication nonadherence in community-dwelling older adults with multiple illnesses (multimorbidity). Nonadherence threatens successful treatment of multimorbidity. Adherence problems can be intentional (e.