The New Age of Moving Together Online: Qualitative Study of a Live Online Exercise Program for Older Adults (Preprint)

Older adults face several barriers to exercise participation, including transportation, lack of access, and poor weather conditions. Such barriers may influence whether older adults meet the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines. Recently, older adults have adopted technology for healthcare and are increasingly using digital health technologies to improve their access to care. Therefore, technology may be a valuable tool to reduce barriers to exercise and increase exercise participation rates within this population. We aimed to explore older adults’ perceptions and experiences of exercise, in general, and specifically related to our live online exercise program for community-dwelling older adults. Registered kinesiologists and physiotherapists delivered an 8-week, thrice-weekly live online group-based exercise program for older adults. The program focused on strength, balance, and aerobic activity. Following the program, a qualitative study with interpretive description design was conducted to explore participants’ perceptions and experiences. Participants were invited to take part in a 30-minute, one-on-one semi-structured interview via Zoom with a research team member. Interview data were thematically analyzed to identify common themes. Twenty-two older adults (16 women, 6 men; 70±4 y) participated in interviews. Three themes were identified: 1) health, exercise, and aging beliefs; 2) the pandemic interruption and impacts; and 3) synchronous online exercise programs attenuate barriers to exercise. Participants discussed their exercise beliefs and behaviours and their desire to safely and correctly participate in exercise. Older adults found that their physical activity was curtailed, routines disrupted, and access to in-person exercise programs revoked due to the pandemic. However, many suggested that our synchronous online exercise program was motivational and attenuated commonly reported environmental barriers to participation, such as transportation concerns (e.g., time spent travelling, driving, and parking), accessibility and convenience by participating at a location of their choice, and removing travel-related concerns during poor weather conditions. Given these reported experiences, we posit that synchronous online exercise programs may help motivate and maintain adherence to exercise programs for older adults. These findings may be leveraged to improve health outcomes in community-dwelling older adults. NCT04627493