Physical Activity and Exercise in Older Adults

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted to serve as Guest Editor for this Special Issue on the subject of physical activity and exercise in older adults.

Exercise and physical activity (PA) are important components of healthy ageing, and they can delay the onset of chronic disease, increase longevity and survival, and improve cognitive and physical function, thus preserving life quality in older adults. There is evidence that exercise and PA have many favourable benefits for older adults, not only in terms of healthy ageing but also as behavioural interventions in the management of chronic non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, chronic pain, cancer, dementia, multi-morbidity, and frailty-related physical impairment, including fall management. Furthermore, exercise rehabilitation and increased PA have been proven to improve the outcomes of medical and surgical interventions.

However, most older adults do not engage in the recommended weekly guidelines for exercise and PA and often do not participate in exercise programmes to maintain healthy ageing or manage chronic disease. Because of this, there is a need to provide optimal exercise programmes for health benefits in terms of the prescription and dosage of exercise, which would include the development of novel techniques and strategies to engage older adults. It is also important to understand the barriers and motivators to exercise and participate in PA—particularly in those from ethnic minority backgrounds, lower socio-economic areas, and other hard-to-reach communities—in order to promote participation and engagement.

This Special Issue will focus on exercise and PA interventions for older adults in primary care, secondary care, or in a community setting and will cover all aspects of exercise and PA promotion for healthy ageing in addition to interventions for chronic disease, including frailty, multi-morbidity, and fall prevention. It is therefore my pleasure to invite international submissions describing new or established PA strategies, interventions, or technologies; quasi-experiments; feasibility studies, randomised controlled trials; qualitative studies; and systematic reviews.

Prof. Dr. Nicola Adams
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Geriatrics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• healthy ageing
• older adults
• frailty
• exercise
• physical activity
• rehabilitation
• digital technology
• chronic conditions
• quality of life