Maintaining Exercise and Healthy Eating in Older Adults

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究项目的主要目标是开发有效的干预方法，长期维持老年人健康的生活方式行为（运动和饮食），以改善他们的健康状况和生活质量。具体目的是解决以下问题：(1)与对照组相比，在老年人中，个性化的积极维持干预能否在4年内保持更高水平的健康饮食和运动行为？(2)哪些社会心理因素与老年人感知到的健康促进行为的维持有关？(3)感知维持健康促进行为对报告的健康结果、社会心理测量、人体测量和认知状态的影响是什么？(4)在老年人亚样本中，自我报告的运动和饮食水平与客观测量的运动和饮食水平之间的关系是什么（包括与身体活动和饮食相关的环境因素）？这个项目与健康的关系非常重要，因为它的目标是在美国越来越重要的人口群体老年人中促进两种基本的健康相关行为（运动和饮食）。研究设计和方法纳入了社区居住的老年人口（从1277个原始样本中预测N = 680，平均年龄= 80岁），作为先前资助的SENIOR项目（罗德岛老年人运动和营养研究）的一部分，跟踪了2年多。参与者将随机分为干预组和对照组，按先前的高级项目小组分配分层。这两组人每年都会接受采访，以评估他们的运动水平、水果和蔬菜的摄入量、总体健康状况和社会心理变量。实验组将接受阶段性干预（手册、通讯和辅导电话），重点是积极维持规定的锻炼水平和水果和蔬菜消费。干预材料将包含具体内容，侧重于关键技能、过程和方法，以维持行为水平，尽管诸如疾病、住院、跌倒、社会经济变化和人际关系丧失等复发威胁。这项拟议的研究代表了一个独特的和前所未有的机会，了解健康生活方式维持的动态在一个大规模的老年人队列超过十年的纵向随访研究。这项研究与公共卫生的相关性是巨大的。老年人是美国人口增长最快的群体，对我们的社会构成了前所未有的健康促进挑战。最近的研究表明，与老年有关的一些慢性健康问题是可以预防或推迟和控制的，从而减轻慢性病的负担，提高功能能力，并可能节省大量的保健费用。人们特别关注运动和饮食，因为它们最有可能实现这些目标。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The broad objectives of this research project are to develop effective intervention methods for long-term maintenance of healthy lifestyle behaviors (exercise and diet) in older adults to improve their health status and quality of life. The specific aims are to address the following questions: (1) Does an individualized active- maintenance intervention maintain greater levels of healthy dietary and exercise behaviors for four years, compared to a control condition, in older adults? (2) What are the psychosocial factors associated with perceived maintenance of health-promoting behaviors in the very old? (3) What are the effects of the perceived maintenance of health-promoting behaviors on reported health outcomes, psychosocial measures, anthropometries, and cognitive status? and (4) What is the relationship between self-reported and objectively measured levels of exercise and diet in a sub-sample of older adults (including environmental factors associated with physical activity and diet)? The health-relatedness of this project is significant, because it is targeted on promoting two essential health-related behaviors (exercise and diet) among an increasingly important population group in the US, older adults. The research design and methodology incorporates a community-dwelling older adult population (projected N = 680 from an original sample of 1277, mean age = 80 years) tracked for over 2 years as part of the previously funded SENIOR Project (Study of Exercise and Nutrition in Older Rhode Islanders). Participants will be randomized into intervention and control groups stratified by previous SENIOR Project group assignment. Both groups will be interviewed annually to assess exercise levels and fruit and vegetable consumption, general health outcomes, and psychosocial variables. The experimental group will receive stage-based interventions (manual, newsletters, and coaching calls) focusing on actively maintaining defined levels of exercise and fruit and vegetable consumption. Intervention materials will incorporate specific content focusing on key skills, processes, and methods of maintaining behavioral levels in spite of such threats to relapse as illness, hospitalization, falls, socioeconomic changes, and interpersonal losses. This proposed research represents a unique and unprecedented opportunity to understand the dynamics of healthy lifestyle maintenance in a large-scale older adult cohort over ten years of longitudinal follow-up study. The relevance of this research for public health is enormous. Older adults represent the fastest growing US population group and pose unprecedented health promotion challenges to our society. Recent research indicates that some of the chronic health problems associated with old age may be prevented or postponed and controlled, reducing the burden of chronic disease and improving functional ability and potentially saving substantial health care dollars. Particular attention has focused on exercise and diet as having the most potential for achieving these aims.