Confronting challenges in intervention research with ethnically diverse older adults: the USC Well Elderly II Trial

Background Community-dwelling older adults are at risk for declines in physical health, cognition, and psychosocial well-being. However, their enactment of active and health-promoting lifestyles can reduce such declines.Purpose The purpose of this article is to describe the USC Well Elderly II study, a randomized clinical trial designed to test the effectiveness of a healthy lifestyle program for elders, and document how various methodological challenges were addressed during the course of the trial.Methods In the study, 460 ethnically diverse elders recruited from a variety of sites in the urban Los Angeles area were enrolled in a randomized experiment involving a crossover design component. Within either the first or second 6-month phase of their study involvement, each elder received a lifestyle intervention designed to improve a variety of aging outcomes. At 4—5 time points over an 18—24 month interval, the research participants were assessed on measures of healthy activity, coping, social support, pe...