“I Will Exercise to Look Great!”: The Impact of Message Frame, Message Focus, and Age Label on Enhancing Older Adults’ Physical Activity Intentions

ABSTRACT

Promoting physical activity (PA) in older adults is a long-standing and crucial aspect of public health. It is essential for improving quality of life and maintaining overall health as people age. This study aims to identify an effective message strategy for enhancing PA intentions in aging population. Using a between subjects, 2 [message frame: gain versus loss] × 2 [message focus: health versus appearance] × 2 [age label: presence versus absence] full factorial survey experiment, this study uncovered a significant main effect for message framing. Gain-framed messages elicited more positive PA attitudes than loss-framed messages among older adults, and this effect of message frame further varied upon different message focuses and age label conditions. Moreover, moderated mediation analyses showed that gain-framed messages exerted a stronger indirect effect on PA intentions through PA attitudes when older adults received appearance-focused messages with age labels than without. The theoretical and practical implications of tailoring health promotion messages targeting older adults were discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical statement

We declare that the submitted work is original and has received ethical approval from the research committee in our university. Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study and their confidentiality and privacy were safeguarded throughout the research process.

Notes

1. The pretest involved 65 older adults (34 female, M = 58.22 years old, SD = 4.14) aged 50–68 from the Credamo panel. Participants were randomized to view one of the eight PA promotion posters and to complete a posttest. Then, they were asked to provide feedback on the stimuli and questionnaire. Besides, we conducted t-tests to assess the effectiveness of our manipulation of the experimental stimulus, which revealed that gain-framed messages (M = 4.75, SD =.44) were rated higher on perceived gain of PA (t = 36.85, p < .001, Cohens’ D = 8.96) compared to loss-framed messages(M = 1.14, SD =.35); health focused messages(M = 4.60, SD =.49) was rated higher on perceived health outcome of PA (t = 7.4, p < .001, Cohens’ D = 1.96) compared to appearance focused messages(M = 2.56, SD = 1.43); and messages contain age labels(M = 4.56, SD =.56) was deemed more effective for targeting older adults (t=-15.51, p < .001, Cohens’ D = 3.84) compared to messages without age labels(M = 1.57, SD =.93). Notably, participants in the pretest were not included in the formal experiment.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.