Promoting healthy exercise among older people in general practice: issues in designing and evaluating therapeutic interventions.

The potential health benefits derived from sustained physical activity in older people are numerous; however, whether exercise promotion should take place in general practice is unsubstantiated. Exercise promotion should use existing research evidence of the advantages of exercise for various conditions, and target those inactive individuals who currently have no intention of changing their level of physical activity. Research has also raised methodological issues and questions about the feasibility of exercise interventions which still need to be tested in exercise trials conducted in general practice.