Recommendations for and warnings against physical activity given to older people by health care professionals

Little is known about how health care professionals advice older people with chronic conditions about physical exercise. This study investigated exercise counseling in the context of health care as perceived by older people, and factors associated with perceived advice.

Participants were 580 non-institutional 73- to 92-year-old people who reported at least one contact with health care during the previous 12 months.

Of all the participants, 23% recalled solely recommendations to exercise, and 9% solely warnings against exercise. Additionally, 34% recalled receiving both recommendations for and warnings against physical activity, and 34% did not recall exercise-related advice at all. Recalling solely recommendations to exercise was associated with having musculoskeletal diseases and impaired mobility. Reporting solely warnings against physical activity was more common among those having heart conditions. Recalling both recommendations for and warnings against exercise was associated with being physically active despite of having heart conditions, musculoskeletal diseases, and impaired mobility. Recalling no exercise-related advice was most common among people who were sedentary and older, had fewer chronic conditions and reported no mobility limitation.

A substantial proportion of older people recalled negative, no, or contradicting advice about exercise. As warnings against physical activity may outweigh recommendations to exercise, special attention should be paid to the content of advice in order to avoid discouraging older people from being active.