Changes in Physical Functioning in the Active Living Every Day Program of the Active for Life Initiative®

Abstract

ALED is an example of an evidenced-based physical activity program that can be successfully translated into community programs and result in significant and clinically meaningful improvements in performance-based measures of physical functioning.

Mediators of Exercise Effects on HRQoL in Cancer Survivors after Chemotherapy

“…Both hand-grip strength and 30-second chair-stand test are valid and reliable measures to assess hand-grip strength (25) and lower body muscle function (5). In addition, the use of (indirect) 1-RM tests would introduce learning bias in the intervention group because these tests were included as part of the intervention.…”

Drift-Free Position Estimation for Periodic Movements Using Inertial Units

“…Moreover, this test has been reported to be a good falls predictor [27] and to have a high correlation to gait and other activities performance [28], [29], especially in older frail population [30]- [32]. The relevance of this study for 30-s CST users lies in its enabling automatic cycle's counting and subsequent definition of the movement's phases.…”

Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior Across the Lifespan

“…Two original studies in the present issue report on the effectiveness of strategies to promote physical activity among adults with type 2 diabetes [6] and among older adults [7]. A Belgian study employed a randomized controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of a group therapy general practitioner (GP)-delivered program versus group counseling sessions compared with a usual care control group to promote physical activity among adults with type 2 diabetes [6].…”

“…The study by Baruth and colleagues [7] employed a pre-post design to examine the effectiveness of a modified version of the Active Living Every Day program on improving physical functioning among older adults. This 20-week group-based lifestyle behavior change program demonstrated significant (small to medium) beneficial effects on functional living tests among older adults, which were not moderated by body mass index or by race/ethnicity.…”

“…There were, however, a number of moderators of time displacement including age, work hours, available free time, education level, and physical activity status. These detailed analyses of physical activity and sedentary preferences [13,15] and how people use their free time [14], as well as the testing of multiple approaches to promoting physical activity [6] and the translation of evidence-based approaches [7] provide rich insights for informing the development of effective tailored approaches which may have more currency with "real world" intervention applications among targeted groups in the population.…”