title: Equity impact of interventions to promote physical activity in older adults: protocol for a systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Public health strategies to promote physical activity among older adults are increasingly being implemented. However, it is not known whether these interventions are equally effective among all social groups of the older adult population. The objectives of the proposed systematic review are to (1) describe the extent to which effects on social inequalities are considered in studies evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to promote physical activity among older adults, (2) describe the methods used for measuring these effects, and (3) assess the implications of the equity related findings for health promotion research and practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, CENTRAL, Physical Education Index, Social Science Citation Index, ASSIA, Sociological Abstracts, and IBSS databases as well as the German language journal Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung will be searched to identify experimental or observational quantitative studies evaluating the effects of interventions on self-reported or objectively measured physical activity among the general population of older adults (≥ 50 years). English or German language peer-reviewed journal articles published since 2005 will be included. Data on whether and how several social factors are considered for both the description of baseline characteristics of participants and for measuring intervention effectiveness will be extracted. The quality of studies will be assessed using the Effective Public Health Practice Project Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies. Results will be presented in a narrative synthesis. If feasible, harvest plots will be used to synthesize evidence about how intervention effects vary between different social groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This systematic review will provide evidence on what is known about the effects of interventions on social inequalities in physical activity among older adults, which is a prerequisite for the prioritization of those interventions most likely to be effective across all social groups of this target population. Therefore, the results of this review will be of major interest to researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in the area of physical activity promotion for older adults.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  This protocol has been registered with the PROSPERO international prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO 2015 CRD42015025066).
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Epidemiology, Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany. gesa.lehne@uni-bremen.de.|Health Sciences Bremen, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany. gesa.lehne@uni-bremen.de.
authors.forename: Gesa
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lehne
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Epidemiology, Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany. gabriele.bolte@uni-bremen.de.|Health Sciences Bremen, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany. gabriele.bolte@uni-bremen.de.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bolte
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D015444:Exercise; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D000078202:Systematic Reviews as Topic
references.citation: BMC Public Health. 2013;13:813
references.pmid: 24010994
references.citation: Syst Rev. 2015;4:1
references.pmid: 25554246
references.citation: Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2013;10:76
references.pmid: 23768212
references.citation: BMC Public Health. 2013;13:449
references.pmid: 23648225
references.citation: J Epidemiol Community Health. 2013 Feb;67(2):190-3
references.pmid: 22875078
references.citation: PLoS Med. 2012;9(10):e1001333
references.pmid: 23222917
references.citation: Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2012;9:116
references.pmid: 22992350
references.citation: BMJ. 2015;349:g7647
references.pmid: 25555855
references.citation: Int J Obes (Lond). 2014 Dec;38(12):1483-90
references.pmid: 24813369
references.citation: Tob Control. 2014 Nov;23(e2):e89-97
references.pmid: 24046211
references.citation: PLoS One. 2013;8(8):e71838
references.pmid: 23977157
references.citation: Prev Med. 2015 Mar;72:64-9
references.pmid: 25575799
references.citation: BMJ Open. 2015;5(4):e007423
references.pmid: 25877281
references.citation: BMC Public Health. 2015;15:457
references.pmid: 25934496
references.citation: Br J Sports Med. 2015 Jun;49(11):743-8
references.pmid: 25977572
references.citation: BMC Public Health. 2015;15:907
references.pmid: 26381233
references.citation: BMC Public Health. 2014;14:834
references.pmid: 25113624
references.citation: Inj Control Saf Promot. 2003 Mar-Jun;10(1-2):11-2
references.pmid: 12772480
references.citation: J Clin Epidemiol. 2014 Jan;67(1):56-64
references.pmid: 24189091
references.citation: Br J Sports Med. 2014 Feb;48(3):239-43
references.pmid: 24276781
references.citation: Obes Rev. 2014 Jul;15(7):541-54
references.pmid: 24629126
references.citation: J Clin Epidemiol. 2016 Feb;70:68-89
references.pmid: 26348799
references.citation: Am J Public Health. 2008 Feb;98(2):216-21
references.pmid: 18172133
references.citation: CMAJ. 2006 Mar 14;174(6):801-9
references.pmid: 16534088
references.citation: J Epidemiol Community Health. 2008 Apr;62(4):344-50
references.pmid: 18339828
references.citation: BMC Med Res Methodol. 2008;8:8
references.pmid: 18298827
references.citation: BMJ. 2009;338:b688
references.pmid: 19264819
references.citation: PLoS Med. 2009 Jul 21;6(7):e1000100
references.pmid: 19621070
references.citation: PLoS Med. 2009 Jul 21;6(7):e1000097
references.pmid: 19621072
references.citation: Int J Epidemiol. 2010 Apr;39(2):372-7
references.pmid: 19887510
references.citation: J Eval Clin Pract. 2012 Feb;18(1):12-8
references.pmid: 20698919
references.citation: Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2011;8:142
references.pmid: 22204444
references.citation: Prev Med. 2012 Jun;54(6):371-80
references.pmid: 22521997