Abstract

Abstract. This review describes the adherence characteristics and reasons for abandonment physical exercise-based interventions in older adults in Latin America. This scoping review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA statement. Articles were searched in MEDLINE by PubMed, ELSEVIER by SCOPUS and SciELO. The MeSH terms «Exercise», Exercise Therapy» and «Aged» were used between 2015 and 2020. We searched for articles in Spanish, English, and Portuguese carried out in people aged 65 years and over.101 out of 4,642 randomized controlled trials (RCT) were included. A total sample of 5,013 older adults (79% women), with an average age of 68.2 years started their studies and 4,312 finished it, presenting an adherence to the interventions of 86%. Most of the studies were carried out in healthy older adults, in places enabled for the practice of physical activity, in charge of a physical activity professional, and the interventions were performed carried out through group therapeutic exercise. No article reported information on the minimum time of participation to the session to be considered as carried out. Only 30% of the articles reported the minimum participation of older adults in the intervention to include them in the study analysis, and 21% reported the average number of sessions attended to the intervention. The main reasons for abandonment were personal causes unrelated to the intervention. Only 5% of the articles reported injury of one of the participants (in two of them the injury was related to the intervention applied). This review characterized the physical exercise programs in older adults in Latin America, as well the adherence characteristics and the main reasons for abandonment to physical exercise-based interventions, by summarizing available evidence derived from RCTs.