Receipt of Exercise Counseling by Older Women

OBJECTIVES: To compare the national prevalence of reported receipt of clinician exercise counseling across four age groups of women (50–64, 65–74, 75–84, and ≥85) and to determine whether age or health are barriers to reported receipt of exercise counseling. DESIGN: 2000 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). SETTING: United States. PARTICIPANTS: Six thousand three hundred eighty‐five women aged 50 and older who responded to the 2000 NHIS, representing an estimated 34.5 million noninstitutionalized women nationally. MEASUREMENTS: Exercise counseling, disease burden, functional dependency, and physical inactivity were assessed by questionnaire. RESULTS: Of the 6,385 women, 52.2% were aged 50 to 64, 24.8% were aged 65 to 74, 18.0% were age 75 to 84, and 5.1% were aged 85 and older. Overall, 28.3% reported that a clinician had recommended that they begin or continue to perform any type of exercise or physical activity during the previous year: 31.4% of women aged 50 to 64, 29.2% of women aged 65 to 74, 21.6% of women aged 75 to 84, and 14.4% of women aged 85 and older. Women aged 75 to 84 (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=0.8, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.6–1.0) and women aged 85 and older (AOR=0.6, 95% CI=0.4–0.9) were substantially less likely to report clinician counseling about exercise, before and after adjustment. Further adjustment for illness burden and functional dependency did not attenuate the effect of receipt of exercise counseling. CONCLUSION: Reported receipt of exercise counseling by older women is low nationally. Despite known benefits of late‐life exercise, women aged 75 and older are less likely to report receiving exercise counseling from their clinicians than women aged 50 to 64. Interventions should be aimed at increasing clinician counseling about exercise, especially to older women.