The groningen active living model (galm): results on health and fitness of sedentary and underactive older adults

Regular physical activity is regarded as an important component of a healthy lifestyle, decreasing the risk of many non-communicable diseases, mental health issues and increasing functioning and quality of life in older adults. Despite these benefits, a substantial segment of the older adult population remains sedentary or insufficiently physically active. In the Netherlands, depending of the definition and measurement method used, approximately 40–80% of Dutch adults aged 55 years and older can be considered physically inactive which matches data from other Western countries. For this reason, the GALM was developed. Aim of GALM was stimulating leisure-time physical activity in sedentary and underactive older adults aged 55–65 years. GALM is a community-based approach and distinguishes itself from other community-based strategies by way of the neighborhood-oriented recruitment phase and the versatile recreational sports activity program which is based on behavioral change and evolutionary-biological play theories. Since 1997, over 1.1 million older adults have been approached door-to-door, over 150.000 participated in the fitness test and over 100.000 participated in the GALM program. In this presentation, the theoretical background and short and long-term effects of participation in the GALM project on indicators of health and fitness will be presented.