Background: Public health strategies to promote physical activity among older adults are increasingly being implemented. However, it is not known whether these interventions are equally effective among all social groups of the older adult population. The objectives of the proposed systematic review are to (1) describe the extent to which effects on social inequalities are considered in studies evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to promote physical activity among older adults, (2) describe the methods used for measuring these effects, and (3) assess the implications of the equity related findings for health promotion research and practice.
Methods/design: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, CENTRAL, Physical Education Index, Social Science Citation Index, ASSIA, Sociological Abstracts, and IBSS databases as well as the German language journal Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung will be searched to identify experimental or observational quantitative studies evaluating the effects of interventions on self-reported or objectively measured physical activity among the general population of older adults (≥ 50 years). English or German language peer-reviewed journal articles published since 2005 will be included. Data on whether and how several social factors are considered for both the description of baseline characteristics of participants and for measuring intervention effectiveness will be extracted. The quality of studies will be assessed using the Effective Public Health Practice Project Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies. Results will be presented in a narrative synthesis. If feasible, harvest plots will be used to synthesize evidence about how intervention effects vary between different social groups.
Discussion: This systematic review will provide evidence on what is known about the effects of interventions on social inequalities in physical activity among older adults, which is a prerequisite for the prioritization of those interventions most likely to be effective across all social groups of this target population. Therefore, the results of this review will be of major interest to researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in the area of physical activity promotion for older adults.
Systematic review registration: This protocol has been registered with the PROSPERO international prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO 2015 CRD42015025066).