ABSTRACT
Social marketing is “the adaptation of commercial marketing technologies to programs designed to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences to improve their personal welfare and that of the society”. Social marketing is one of the most widely used methods for promoting behaviors that benefit the health of the population. That social marketing is effective has been proven in certain interventions and certain populations, such as smoking prevention as well as obesity prevention among young people. Although this method has shown its value in other contexts, its use and evaluation in getting seniors to take part in regular physical activity (PA) remains limited. This chapter presents a literature review conducted to identify interventions using the social marketing method to promote PA among elderly people. Our aim was to analyze whether social marketing can have potential to promote PA among elderly people.
As shown in this literature review, social marketing may have the potential to be effective for promoting PA among seniors. However, further research is needed since the studies we identified are not amenable to meta-analysis.
