Background: It remains unclear how physical activity (PA) interventions need to be designed to reach older adults and to be widely accepted in this target group. The aim of this study was to assess the acceptance of a web-based PA program, including individual intervention components as well as relevant contextual factors, and to specify requirements for future interventions. Methods: Two hundred sixty-six participants of a PA intervention completed a questionnaire covering individual program components (content, structure, and context). Further, 25 episodic guided interviews focusing on reasons for (non-) participation were conducted with 8 participants and 17 non-participants. Following qualitative content analysis, different requirements were identified and organized based on the social-ecological model, resulting in a profile of requirements. Results: Based on the participants' and non-participants' statements, six different levels of requirements affecting acceptance of and successful participation in a web-based PA intervention were identified. The individual fit was influenced by an interaction of different factors at the intrapersonal, sociocultural, content, spatial, digital and organizational levels. Several ageand gender-specific requirements were noted in the interviewed older adults. Men and women, as well as younger (< 70 years) and older (≥70 years) adults differed in terms of perceived enjoyment and benefits of socializing while exercising together, the time expenditure perceived to be acceptable, previous digital skills, as well as in perceptions that ambience and accessibility of exercise facilities in the neighborhood were important.

Objective Communities are important settings for health promotion and prevention. The community readiness assessment offers a structured approach to assess resources and opportunities to tackle a health problem within a community. The assessment relies on semi-structured interviews with key informants from the communities. A number of 4–6 key informant interviews are recommended in the literature. However, it is unclear whether this is sufficient to obtain a valid representation of the respective community. This study analysed whether increasing the number of key informants from 4–6 to 12–15 alters the results of the community readiness assessment. Results A total of 55 community readiness interviews were carried out in 4 communities. Overall, the community readiness scores showed little variation after having interviewed 10 key informants in a community. However, even after completing 10 interviews in a community, key informants were still able to identify up to 6 new information items regarding community efforts for physical activity promotion among the elderly, contact and communication channel for informing or approaching the target group, or barriers to participation.

Background There are substantial socioeconomic status (SES) differences in sports activity (SA) during the transition to retirement. In line with social-ecological models, the aim of this longitudinal study was to examine the association of perceptions of social and physical neighborhood factors with changes in SA across the retirement transition and to examine potential interactions with SES factors. Methods Data from 6 waves of the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) provided 710 participants (at baseline: mean age 61.1, 52.9% of men) who retired between baseline (1996, 2002, 2008, 2011) and their 6-year follow-up assessment. Associations between changes in SA (increases and decreases compared to retaining) and individual SES and neighborhood factors were estimated using multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results Increases were observed in 18.45% of participants, decreases in 10%. Occupational prestige was a risk factor for decreases, education a resource for increases in SA. Interactions between household income and several neighborhood factors were observed. Conclusions In line with social-ecological models, individual, neighborhood factors and interacting associations were found. In particular safety perceptions could be a resource for promotion SA in older adults who experience disadvantage.

To paraphrase a classic, evaluating digital technologies in health is a bit like eating spinach - no one is against it in principle because it is good for you. However, no one would do it unless being asked to. In recent years, the sheer number of digital health technologies that potentially fulfil public health purposes has increased tremendously. The basis for evaluating such tools for public health purposes however has not met this pace, and in particular frameworks for the systematic development and evaluation of digital technologies in public health are rare. Existing frameworks for digital technologies focus on clinical aspects of digital health applications (e.g., NICE Evidence standards framework for digital health technologies), thus lacking both a population and prevention focus. Generic frameworks such as the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) methodology do not contain items specific to digital technologies and public health purposes. Here, we describe the process of developing a framework specific for the development and evaluation of digital public health technologies based on the core HTA model. We conduct a scoping review of frameworks for the development and the evaluation of technologies in public health and digital health, following PRISMA-SCR guidelines. The identified frameworks are then mapped onto the core HTA model to develop additional items specific for the development and the evaluation of digital technologies in public health. These additional items can be used to integrate the development and evaluation of digital technologies for public health purposes within the wider HTA context, making this process both transferable and scalable.