Interventions for reducing sedentary behaviour in community-dwelling older adults 

Cochrane Public Health group published a systematic review in June 2021 where the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing sedentary behaviour amongst older adults living independently in the community compared to control conditions involving either no intervention or interventions that do not target sedentary behaviour. Older adults spend about 80% of their time being sedentary. Sedentary time is the amount of time spent sitting or lying down whilst awake. For example, sitting down watching TV is considered a sedentary behaviour. Long periods of sedentary time have been linked with an increased risk of several long‐term diseases, becoming frailer, developing disabilities, needing help with everyday activities, and early death. The review was conducted to know if programmes or policies intended to help older adults reduce their sedentary time are effective and if these programmes or policies also provide physical or mental health benefits.

The evidence published up to January 2021 found seven studies including a total of 397 older adults. All of the studies looked at ways to help individual older adults to change their sedentary behaviour. The support included a range of strategies like counselling, goal setting, and information sessions. Some of the studies used technology that records behaviour, such as activity monitors. We did not find any studies that looked at changes to the natural environment, the built environment, a person's social environment, or home environment where older adults live. We did not find any studies that looked at the effect of changing policies and laws that affect the sedentary behaviour of older adults. We did not find any studies that looked at whether the benefits and use of the programme were at least worth what was paid for them. None of the studies reported on unwanted effects.

It is not clear whether interventions to reduce sedentary behaviour are effective at reducing sedentary time in community‐dwelling older adults and are uncertain if these interventions have any impact on the physical or mental health of community‐dwelling older adults. There were few studies, and the certainty of the evidence is very low to low, mainly due to inconsistency in findings and imprecision. Future studies should consider interventions aimed at modifying the environment, policy, and social and cultural norms. Future studies should also use device‐based measures of sedentary time, recruit larger samples, and gather information about quality of life, cost‐effectiveness, and adverse event data.

The systematic review can be accessed at: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012784.pub2/full