Digital Health Interventions to Promote Physical Activity in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Semiquantitative Analysis

M Di Pumpo; A Miatton; M T Riccardi; E A Graps; V Baldo; A Buja; G Damiani

doi:10.3389/ijph.2024.1607720

Digital Health Interventions to Promote Physical Activity in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Semiquantitative Analysis

Int J Public Health. 2025 Jan 3:69:1607720. doi: 10.3389/ijph.2024.1607720. eCollection 2024.

Authors

M Di Pumpo^#^{1

2}, A Miatton^#³, M T Riccardi^{4

5}, E A Graps⁶, V Baldo³, A Buja^#³, G Damiani^#^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Life Sciences and Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy.
² Department of Prevention, AULSS6 Euganea, Padua, Italy.
³ Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences, and Public Health, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padua, Italy.
⁴ Cancer Screening Coordination Unit, Local Health Unit Roma 2, Rome, Italy.
⁵ Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.
⁶ Agenzia Regionale per la Salute ed il Sociale ARESS, Bari, Italy.
⁷ Department of Woman and Child Health and Public Health, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Objectives: Physical activity (PA) is crucial for older adults' wellbeing. Digital health interventions (DHIs) are important, however a synthesis aimed at healthy community-dwelling OA is lacking. This study aims to synthesize DHIs effect on PA levels among community-dwelling 60-year-old adults or older.

Methods: A systematic review was performed. DHIs using eHealth/mHealth tools, apps and text messaging were included. Primary outcomes were daily steps, moderate-to-vigorous PA and sedentary time. Quality was assessed via Cochrane risk-of-bias tools. Study-reported effect, study quality, sample size, study duration and dropout rate were semi-quantitatively synthesized to determine the overall category effect.

Results: 12 studies were included. 75% were low-quality, sample size was 16-18,080, study duration was 3-18 weeks, average dropout rate was 4.2%-46.7%. The synthesis of "motivational reminders" and "dynamic exercise programs" showed an overall positive effect, of "PA self-monitoring" showed mixed results and "exercise digital coaching" showed a non-positive effect.

Discussion: Motivational reminders and dynamic exercise programs proved more effective in increasing PA in older adults than other interventions and should be more embedded in structured public health programs.

Keywords: ageing; digital health; exercise; healthy lifestyle; physical fitness.

Publication types

Systematic Review
Review

MeSH terms

Aged
Digital Health
Exercise*
Health Promotion* / methods
Humans
Independent Living*
Middle Aged
Motivation
Telemedicine

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research has received funding from and was conducted within the activities of: “EMOTICon-Net: Stakeholders engagement per la creazione di un intervento personalizzato di promozione dell’attività fisica mediato da tecnologia digitale, per un assessment dei bisogni di salute finalizzato alla programmazione sanitaria,” funded by the Italian Ministry of Health, grant number B95E22000790001. This paper was developed within the project funded by Next-Generation EU - “Age-It - Ageing well in an aging society” project (PE0000015), National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) - PE8 - Mission 4, C2, Intervention 1.3”.