Increasing physical activity levels in care homes for older people: a quantitative scoping review of intervention studies to guide future research.

A scoping review maps what has been studied. It does not show whether any intervention works. The review included only studies published in English, so non-English evidence was missed. The review was not exhaustive. Most studies were from high income countries, and the majority were from the USA, so they may not match care homes elsewhere. The paper reports inconsistent counts of randomised controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies. Many included studies had incomplete outcome data, unclear adherence, or unclear delivery as intended. Intervention descriptions were often not detailed enough for another service to copy. Many interventions were delivered by research staff or external professionals, so it is unclear whether care home staff could continue them. Most studies targeted individual residents, so the review says little about changing care home culture, environment, or policy. Just under half of the studies did not include a control group. Studies were not excluded based on methodological quality.

The work was supported by a PhD fellowship from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government, award number DTF/14/02. The funder had no role in the conduct of the review.

Do not read this as proof that exercise programmes increase physical activity in care homes. It is a scoping review of 19 studies, and it mainly maps what has been tried. Most interventions targeted individual residents, few changed care home context, and many were delivered by external staff, so sustainability and effectiveness were not shown.