comparing the effect of face-to-face education and e-learning on the physical activity of the elderly

Introduction: regular physical activity is very effective in preventing or delaying chronic diseases and premature death in the elderly. objective: this study aimed to compare the effect of face-to-face education and e-learning methods on the physical activity of the elderly. materials and methods: this is a quasi-experimental study conducted in karaj, iran in 2018. the participants were 88 elderly people referred to a senior rehab center and then were assigned into three groups of face-to-face education (n=30), e-learning (n=28), and control (n=30).the study data were collected by a demographic form and the 41-item community healthy activities program for seniors questionnaire (champs) before the intervention, 1 month after the intervention, and 3-month follow-up. face-to-face education and e-learning were presented to the two educational groups’ during eight 20-minute sessions. the obtained data were analyzed using anova, bonferroni post hoc test, the chi-square test, and repeated measures anova. the significance level was set at 0.05. results: between the two educational groups, a significant difference was observed in the mean score of physical activity at three measurement phases (p=0.001).the effect size was 0.61 for face-to-face education and 0.64 for e-learning. based on the results of the bonferroni post hoc test, there was no significant difference between e-learning and face-to-face education groups. conclusion: both face-to-face and e-learning methods were effective in promoting the physical activity behavior of the elderly. e-learning method can be used as one of the complementary methods of traditional education for improving the physical activity of the elderly.