Lifestyle Activities in Sociodemographically at-risk Urban, Older Adults Prior to Participation in the Baltimore Experience Corps(®) Trial.

Experience Corps(®) places teams of trained volunteers in elementary school classrooms to promote academic achievement in children, and serve as a health promotion intervention for older adults. Prior to randomization, individuals reported participation in several activities of varying cognitive, physical, and social demands. Maintaining an active lifestyle, particularly in intellectually demanding activities, was associated with physical, mental, and cognitive health in adulthood. Establishing how individuals allocated their time before randomization to this program provides insight to prevalent health behaviors for at-risk older adults, and can provide the basis for examining intervention-related changes in lifestyle as a result of volunteer participation.