The Groningen Active Living Model, an example of successful recruitment of sedentary and underactive older adults

Objective Many physical activity interventions do not reach those people who would benefit the most from them. The Groningen Active Living Model (GALM) was successful in recruiting sedentary and underactive older adults. Method In the fall of 2000 older adults in three municipalities in the Netherlands received written information, were visited at home and, if eligible according to the GALM recruitment criteria, filled in the Stages of Change questionnaire and the Voorrips physical activity questionnaire. Results By using the strategy we succeeded in including 12.3% of the older adults (315 of the 2551 qualifying participants), 79.4% of whom could be indeed regarded as sedentary or underactive. These results can be considered in line with results described in the literature. The cost of successfully recruiting an older adult was estimated at $84. Conclusions The GALM recruitment strategy is a potentially useful and effective method for reaching community-dwelling sedentary and underactive older adults.