Every
year, 1 in 4 people aged 65 and older falls. Twenty-five percent of these falls
result in severe injury or death and have devastating effects on quality of
life. Despite evidence that physical activities targeting leg strength and
balance reduce falls, less than 12% of older adults engage in these activities
regularly, and fall rates continue to increase. Research examining intervention
strategies that motivate older adults to engage in physical activity is scarce
and inconclusive. Thus, there is a compelling need to identify specific
behavior change strategies that effectively and efficiently motivate older
adults to sustain increased levels of physical activity. In this presentation,
I will describe an ongoing 5-year research project, Community-based Intervention Effects on Older Adults' Physical Activity
and Falls, that addresses this need. In particular, I will describe how and
why we use the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) framework to guide the
methods used in this project.