“I Will Exercise to Look Great!”: The Impact of Message Frame, Message Focus, and Age Label on Enhancing Older Adults’ Physical Activity Intentions

Promoting physical activity (PA) in older adults is a long-standing and crucial aspect of public health. It is essential for improving quality of life and maintaining overall health as people age. This study aims to identify an effective message strategy for enhancing PA intentions in aging population. Using a between subjects, 2 [message frame: gain versus loss] × 2 [message focus: health versus appearance] × 2 [age label: presence versus absence] full factorial survey experiment, this study uncovered a significant main effect for message framing. Gain-framed messages elicited more positive PA attitudes than loss-framed messages among older adults, and this effect of message frame further varied upon different message focuses and age label conditions. Moreover, moderated mediation analyses showed that gain-framed messages exerted a stronger indirect effect on PA intentions through PA attitudes when older adults received appearance-focused messages with age labels than without. The theoretical and practical implications of tailoring health promotion messages targeting older adults were discussed.