• Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani, Ashlene Wright, Eleanor Quested, Elissa Burton, Keith D Hill, Ester Cerin, BiddleStuart J HSJHInstitute of Sport, Exercise & Active Living, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.Institute for Resilient Regions, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield, Queensland, Australia., and Nikos Ntoumanis.
• Health Psychology & Behavioural Medicine Research Group, School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
• BMJ Open. 2017 Jun 23; 7 (6): e015543.

IntroductionAgeing is accompanied by increased risks of chronic disease, declined functioning and increased dependency. Physical activity is critical to retaining health and independence, but the majority of older people are insufficiently physically active to achieve these benefits and have high levels of sedentary (sitting) time. Activity programmes are often offered in retirement villages; however, their uptake is limited. Furthermore, although the physical environment in and around these villages can play an important role in decisions to be physically active, its role is often overlooked by research in these settings. We aim to develop, implement and evaluate a proof-of-concept motivationally embellished intervention designed to increase walking, reduce sitting and improve mental health in residents in retirement villages.Methods And AnalysisThis will be a 16-week pilot intervention using a cluster randomised design with retirement villages as the unit of randomisation and residents as the unit of assessment. Fourteen retirement villages around Perth, Western Australia, will be recruited for the intervention. Objective audits of neighbourhood environments around each village will be completed using the Pathway Environmental Audit Tool. Seven villages will be randomised to the experimental arm and seven to the control arm. Only participants in the experimental arm will receive motivational training. All outcomes will be assessed at baseline, end of intervention and 6-month follow-up. Changes in physical activity levels, sitting time and mental health will be examined. Multilevel modelling will be used to analyse the data. A mixed methods process evaluation will also be conducted.Ethics And DisseminationEthics approval was granted by Curtin University's Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC2016-0187). The results of the study will be disseminated via peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and reports to, and seminars with, stakeholders.Trial RegistrationThe trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12616001177448.© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

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