title: Marketing public health through older adult volunteering: Experience Corps as a social marketing intervention.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We present a social marketing conceptual framework for Experience Corps Baltimore City (EC) in which the desired health outcome is not the promoted product or behavior. We also demonstrate the feasibility of a social marketing-based recruitment campaign for the first year of the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial (BECT), a randomized, controlled trial of the health benefits of EC participation for older adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  We recruited older adults from the Baltimore, MD, area. Participants randomized to the intervention were placed in public schools in volunteer roles designed to increase healthy behaviors. We examined the effectiveness of a recruitment message that appealed to generativity (i.e., to make a difference for the next generation), rather than potential health benefits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 155 participants recruited in the first year of the BECT, the average age was 69 years; 87% were women and 85% were African American. Participants reported primarily generative motives as their reason for interest in the BECT.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Public health interventions embedded in civic engagement have the potential to engage older adults who might not respond to a direct appeal to improve their health.
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. erwin.tan@alumni.brown.edu
authors.forename: Erwin J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Elizabeth K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Tanner
authors.forename: Teresa E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Seeman
authors.forename: Qian-Li
authors.initials: QL
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: George W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Rebok
authors.forename: Kevin D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Frick
authors.forename: Michelle C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Carlson
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Rachel L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Piferi
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McGill
authors.forename: Keith E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Whitfield
authors.forename: Linda P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Fried
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015142:Baltimore; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D040241:Social Marketing; D012946:Social Welfare; D014838:Volunteers