Activity Monitoring and Counseling in a Geriatric Population

Subjects will meet with the exercise counselor who will use accelerometer data to provide feedback and counseling to help the user increase their activity by at least 20% each day. In subjects who achieve an increase of 20%, the counseling will focus either on maintaining activity levels or increasing activity further depending on the desire of the subject. Counseling will be provided once weekly by phone and in person at least once a month. Following the 26th week the experimental subjects will continue to wear the Fitbit and receive feedback about their activity levels for an additional 24 weeks, but they will no longer receive counseling. The control group will receive no counseling for the first 26 weeks of the study and will then crossover to get accelerometry feedback and counseling for the last 24 weeks of the study.

The accelerometer, Fitbit, will be worn continuously. Fitbit can provide feedback to subjects about their physical activity. Subjects will wear the Fitbit for two weeks (without feedback) to obtain baseline activity data. The experimental group will then be instructed on use of the fitbit. This group will receive feedback from the accelerometer for the remainder of the study. The control group will wear the Fitbit but receive no feedback for the first 26 weeks of the study. For the last 24 weeks they will crossover and receive feedback from the Fitbit accelerometer.