Evaluation of physical activity programmes for elderly people - a descriptive study using the EFQM' criteria

A methodological triangulation was conducted in 26 PA programmes using questionnaire surveys, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. We used standard approaches to the statistical analysis of data including frequencies and percentages for the categorical data.Results showed that Processes (65,38%), Leadership (61,03%), Customer results (58,46) and People (51,28%) had high percentage occurrences of quality practices. In contrast, Partnerships and resources (45,77%), People results (41,03%), Policy and strategy (37,91%), Key performance results (19,23%) and Society results (19,23%) had lower percentage occurrences.Our findings suggest that although there are some good practices in PA programmes, there are still relevant areas that require improvement.The last few decades have witnessed a significant demographic ageing process, causing deep social and political transformations, and challenging society and humanity's options for the 21st century. The population aged 60 or over is increasing rapidly and is expected to increase by more than 50 per cent over the next four decades, expanding from 264 million in 2009 to 416 million in 2050 in more developed regions [1]. Subsequently, there will be more older people than children in the world population for the first time in history.The most important issue related to demographic ageing deals with its implications for the well-being of the elderly, such as access to appropriate health-care services. In developed countries, some degree of progress has been made to achieve this objective, all the more so as ageing is the most important contributor to the increase in health care costs [2].The concept of 'active ageing' has been employed by the World Health Organization (WHO) since the late 1990s, and is defined as 'the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age' (WHO 2002 [3] p.12). Therefore, there has been a growing concern in designin