Those who are physically active have lower mortality than sedentary individuals (Fried et al., 1998; Kaplan et al., 1987; Kaplan, 1997; Kushi et al., 1997; Paffenbarger et al., 1993; Sherman, D'Agostino, Cobb, & Kannel, 1994) and have higher physical functioning (Guralnik & Kaplan, 1989; Judge, Schechtman, Cress, & the
FICSIT Group, 1996; Kaplan, Strawbridge, Camacho, & Cohen, 1993) despite the usual decline in functioning seen with increasing age (Maddox & Clark, 1992).
The multicenter Frailty and Injuries: Cooperative Studies on Intervention Techniques (
FICSIT) RCTs represented the first systematic and large-scale attempt to investigate the efficacy of exercise (both targeted and nontargeted) on a mutually agreed upon set of performance measures related to frailty and fall incidence rates among older adults.