Outcomes of older adult physical activity participation that matter to health care professionals.

Abstract

Background and objectives: There is extensive heterogeneity in outcome domain selection and reporting in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of physical activity interventions for older adults. Physical activity researchers need a core outcome set that recommends a minimum set of outcome domains to measure consistently, guided by input from health care professionals to ensure clinical relevance. This study aimed to identify the outcome domains related to older adults' physical activity participation that are most important to health care professionals.

Research design and methods: Health care professionals completed an online survey in which they rated the importance of measuring 24 candidate outcome domains in future RCTs of physical activity interventions for older adults and ranked their top four.

Results: 225 health care professionals participated (72% female; mean [SD] age, 37.8 [11.2] years; 21 general practitioners, 99 physiotherapists, and 105 kinesiologists). The 5 outcome domains most frequently rated as "highly important" (6-7 of 7) were Falls (92.0%), Quality of Life (91.5%), Independence (87.9%), Balance (84.4%), and Mobility (82.7%). The 5 outcome domains that most frequently appeared in participants' top 4 importance rankings were Quality of Life (67.1%), Independence (50.2%), Risk and Management of Chronic Disease (40.2%), Mobility (33.3%), and Falls (32.9%).

Discussion and implications: Health care professionals prioritized Quality of Life, Independence, Falls, and Mobility as key outcome domains to measure in RCTs of physical activity interventions for older adults. These results will help align research with clinical priorities, support physical activity promotion, and guide the development of a core outcome set.