Community-based Physical Fitness Exercise on the Older Adults' Functional Fitness and Adherence to Physical Activity

The Influence of a New Intervention Model of Community-based Physical Fitness Exercise on the Older Adults' Adherence to Physical Activity and the Improvement of Functional Fitness

Maintaining adequate physical activity (PA) and regularly exercising are very important to promote the good physical and mental health of the elderly. According to the transtheoretical model (TTM) framework, previous research studies have formulated many strategies to promote exercise behaviors, such as incentive strategies, combines municipal resources and links up with the referral of primary care institutions, or including patients in the decision-making process about exercise choices to enable patients to have greater autonomy. In addition, in terms of the strategic aspects of achieving goals, competitive incentives are also an effective strategy. Therefore, this study aims to find out the effects of the community-based physical fitness exercise course, which is given according to TTM, on improving functional fitness and exercise persistence of the older adults.

Inclusion Criteria:

• age between 65 to 90 years old
• can stand up from a chair without armrests
• can walk independently for 2 minutes without relying on any mechanical assistance
• no medical issues according to the PAR-Q+ form assessment
• can complete the Senior Fitness Test (SFT)

Exclusion Criteria:

• diagnosed with severe dementia (unable to understand and/or follow verbal commands)
• suffering from stroke, severe hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes
• hip or knee replacement surgery in the past 6 months
• hip fracture
• having undergoing rehabilitation plan
• unable to complete the pre-tests or post-test