title: Adherence to physical activity recommendations in older adults: an Israeli national survey.
abstract: The trend of extended life expectancy along with a sedentary lifestyle is typical in Western cultures.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore adherence to physical activity recommendations in older adults in Israel.
  
  
  METHODS
  A random sample of 1,536 Jews and 316 Arabs age 65+ were interviewed and divided into sufficiently active, insufficiently active, and inactive groups based on official guidelines.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only 36.4% of the Jewish sector and 19.6% of the Arab sector are sufficiently active. Men are more active than women, the secular are more active than the religious among both Jews and Arabs, and more years of education, a higher income, and fewer diseases and medications are related to higher levels of physical activity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To slow down biological age decline with physical activity, intervention programs specifically tailored for culturally diverse groups are suggested-for example, recruiting prominent religious leaders to promote physical activity in religious populations.
authors.affiliation: Zinman College of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Wingate Institute, Israel.
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Netz
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goldsmith
authors.forename: Tal
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimony
authors.forename: Yosefa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ben-Moshe
authors.forename: Aviva
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zeev
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D018912:Arabs; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D006293:Health Promotion; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D007585:Jews; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D057185:Sedentary Behavior