AUTHOR=Tcymbal Antonina , Abu-Omar Karim , Hartung Verena , Bußkamp Annalena , Comito Chiara , Rossmann Christin , Meinzinger Diana , Reimers Anne Kerstin TITLE=Interventions simultaneously promoting social participation and physical activity in community living older adults: A systematic review JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health VOLUME=10 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1048496 DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.1048496 ISSN=2296-2565 ABSTRACT=Background

In recent years, there has been a global trend toward an increase in life expectancy and the proportion of elderly people among the population. In this regard, it becomes important to promote active and healthy aging. Physical inactivity and social isolation are both risk factors of many chronic illnesses and highly prevalent in older adults. This challenges communities to develop interventions that reduce these risk factors among elderly populations. The main aims of this study were to summarize community-based interventions that aim to simultaneously promote social participation and physical activity in older adults and to examine their effects.

Methods

We performed a systematic review based on the PRISMA standards. Literature searches were conducted in six scientific databases in July 2021. Articles were included if they had an interventional design, focused on older adults living in the community and measured social participation and physical activity as an outcome. The data were summarized narratively due to the heterogeneity of studies and the variety of outcome measures.

Results

Overall, 46 articles published in English were included. The studies were grouped in (1) interventions with main focus on physical activity promotion; (2) social activities that included a physical activity component; (3) health behavior interventions/ health education interventions; (4) multicomponent interventions; (5) environmental interventions. The majority of the reviewed studies reported positive effects of interventions on physical activity and/or social participation. No study reported negative effects. Analysis of quantitative studies showed that multicomponent interventions have great positive effects on both outcomes. In qualitative studies positive effects were found regardless of intervention type.

Conclusion

This review summarizes the evidence about the effects of community-based interventions that aim to promote social participation and physical activity in older adults. Multicomponent interventions seem to be most suitable for simultaneous promotion of physical activity and social participation. However, high variability in measurement methods used to assess both social participation and physical activity in the included studies made it difficult to compare studies and to indicate the most effective.

Systematic review registration

www.crd.york.ac.uk, identifier: PROSPERO [CRD42021268270].