Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

We wish to determine if self-regulatory mobility cognitions (i.e., self-efficacy) and corresponding mobility can be improved by engaging older adults in a brief, mobility exercise plus counselling intervention that targets everyday mobility tasks. The study involves the comparison of two treatment arms: a treatment group (mobility task plus brief cognitive behavioural counselling: Mob-EX) with a mobility exercise plus education condition (Walk-ED). Each group will be pre and post-tested. The significance of a brief intervention focused on enhancing mobility and social cognitions in older adults is with respect to (a) persuading older adults who are not inclined to exercise to do a specific form of exercise that promotes their ability to remain independent in regard to being independently mobile and (b) intervention scalability. If both mobility and social cognitions were improved with only 2-weeks of participation it would have great implications for providing inactive older adults with similar programs as a step towards being more active. It may be a way for older adults to gain some confidence in their mobility abilities and be able to see the relevance of doing specific mobility exercise and its importance to their daily functioning.