Preventing Falls Together: Social Identification Matters for Engaging Older Adults in a Group-based Exercise Program

ABSTRACT

According to socioemotional selectivity theory, older adults may attend a falls prevention program due to social-emotional rather than health-related factors. Within a prospective design, N = 174 participants completed a questionnaire (T1) assessing social identification with the training group, risk perception, outcome expectancies, self-efficacy beliefs, intention, health status and form of housing. At follow-up six month later (T2), n = 125 participants provided information on training attendance. A multiple regression analysis with form of housing as moderator revealed that social identification predicted attendance, but only for those participants living alone (β = .87, p < .001). Health-related predictors were not associated with attendance.

KEYWORDS:

• Falls prevention
• health behavior change theory
• older adults
• socioemotional selectivity theory
• social identification
• training attendance

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the study’s participants for their willingness to complete the questionnaires. Special thanks also goes to a team of student assistants who helped to collect and prepare the data. This work was supported by the German health insurance company AOK Nordost under Grant (ID = DRKS00012321). The sponsor had no control over the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data. The content is the sole responsibility of the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the AOK Nordost [ID = DRKS00012321].