Behaviour change to promote health and well-being in later life: a goal-setting intervention

老年人在我们的社会中形成了一个越来越大的群体。寿命延长会带来更大的身心衰退和孤独的风险，更需要照顾和支持。患老年痴呆症等与年龄有关的疾病的风险也更大。正因为如此，我们迫切需要找到促进晚年健康的方法，预防、延缓或减少与年龄有关的残疾的影响。如果老年人要享受高质量的生活并尽可能长时间地保持独立，这是必不可少的。生活方式的选择似乎会影响老年人的幸福感。从事大量精神、身体和社会活动的人往往更幸福，保持独立的时间也更长。不幸的是，许多老年人在精神上和身体上都缺乏活动，并且与社会隔绝。这表明我们需要鼓励持久的行为改变。如果人们得到他人的支持并能获得设施和资源，他们更有可能改变自己的行为。我们将为50岁以上人士设立一个资源中心，提供社会接触和一系列相关活动。在此背景下，我们将比较鼓励增加身体和精神活动的不同方法。所有参加的人都将被邀请参加，同意参加的人将被随机分配到三种类型的面试中。一个是关于中心的一般性谈话。第二步将侧重于目标设定，与员工一起确定最多五个他们想要改变的领域，并制定实现这些目标的计划。第三次将与第二次类似，但参与者也将每两个月接到一次辅导电话。一年后，我们将发现这三组人的精神和身体活动水平提高了多少，并比较不同类型访谈的效果。研究结果将为政策制定者和服务提供者提供有关改善晚年幸福感的方法。他们还将为开展一项更大规模的研究提供基础，在这项研究中，我们将对参与者进行数年的随访，以找出行为的改变是否会带来更大的幸福感，并有助于减少与年龄有关的残疾和疾病的影响。

Older people form an increasingly large group within our society. Living longer brings a greater risk of physical and mental decline and loneliness, and a greater need for care and support. There is also a greater risk of developing age-related diseases such as Alzheimer?s. Because of this, we urgently need to find ways of promoting good health in later life, and preventing, delaying or reducing the impact of age-related disability. This is essential if older people are to enjoy a good quality of life and remain independent for as long as possible. Lifestyle choices appear to influence well-being in old age. People who engage in plenty of mental, physical and social activity tend to have better well-being and remain independent for longer. Unfortunately, many older people are mentally and physically under-active and socially isolated. This suggests that we need to encourage lasting behaviour change. People are more likely to alter their behaviour if they have support from others and access to facilities and resources. We will establish a resource centre for over 50s that offers social contact and a range of relevant activities. Within this context, we will compare different approaches to encouraging increases in physical and mental activity. Everyone who attends will be invited to take part, and those who agree will be allocated randomly to have one of three types of interview. One will involve a general chat about the centre. The second will focus on goal-setting, working with the person to identify up to five areas where they would like to make changes and devising a plan to achieve these goals. The third will be similar to the second but participants will also receive a mentoring phone call every two months. After a year, we will find out how much the three groups have increased their levels of mental and physical activity, and compare the effects of the different types of interview. The findings will be used to inform policy makers and service providers about ways of improving well-being in later life. They will also provide a basis for developing a larger study in which we will follow up the participants for a number of years to find out whether changes in behaviour result in greater well-being and help to reduce the impact of age-related disability and disease.