Examining physical activity participation barriers among adults 50 years and older: a scoping review

Abstract

Background

Addressing physical activity (PA) barriers is essential for increasing PA levels in middle-aged and older adults. However, there are no recommendations on selecting PA barrier assessment tools.

Objectives

Thus, we aimed to identify and provide clinimetric properties on PA barrier assessment tools that healthcare providers, exercise experts, and public health officials can use to examine potential barriers faced by community-dwelling adults 50 years and older.

Methods

We performed a systematic search of the following databases: PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Web of Science. Articles were included if they presented clinimetric data on a PA participation barrier assessment tool for community-dwelling participants with a mean age of 50 years and older. The 561 identified articles underwent multiple rounds of blinded reviews. Included articles underwent data extraction for participant characteristics, scoring, constructs, reference tests, and clinimetric properties.

Results

The 35 included articles reported on 33 different PA participation barrier assessment tools. Eighteen articles reported on participants with cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, or neurological diagnoses, diabetes, hemodialysis, history of cancer, or mobility limitations. Tools with two or more supporting publications included the Exercise Benefits/Barrier Scale (EBBS), Episode-Specific Interpretations of Exercise Inventory (ESIE), and Inventory of Physical Activity and Barriers (IPAB). Due to differences in methodologies, across-tool comparison was not possible.

Conclusion

The EBBS, ESIE, and IPAB are promising tools for community-dwelling adults 50 years and older. However, additional research is warranted to identify the best PA barrier assessment tool among adults 50 years and older.

Keywords:

• Physical activity
• barriers
• older adults
• primary prevention

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the contributions made by Nancy Bianchi, a librarian at the University of Vermont, for her guidance on identifying appropriate search terms and for completing the searches.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Dr. Vincenzo was supported by the Translational Research Institute (TRI), grant (KL2; TR003108 and UL1 TR003107) through the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health and K76AG074920 from the National Institute on Aging.