Background: Frail older adults are predisposed to multiple comorbidities and adverse events. Recent interventional studies have shown that frailty can be improved and managed. In this study, effective individualized home-based exercise and nutrition interventions were developed for reducing frailty in older adults. Methods: This study was a four-arm, single-blind, randomized controlled trial conducted between October 2015 and June 2017 at Miaoli General Hospital in Taiwan. Overall, 319 pre-frail or frail older adults were randomly assigned into one of the four study groups (control, exercise, nutrition, and exercise plus nutrition [combination]) and followed up during a 3-month intervention period and 3-month self-maintenance period. Improvement in frailty scores was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included improvements in physical performance and mental health. The measurements were performed at baseline, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months.Results: At the 6-month measurement, the exercise (difference in frailty score change from baseline: − 0.23; 95% confidence interval [CI]: − 0.41, − 0.05; p = 0.012), nutrition (− 0.28; 95% CI: − 0.46, − 0.11; p = 0.002), and combination (− 0.34; 95% CI: − 0.52, − 0.16; p < 0.001) groups exhibited significantly greater improvements in the frailty scores than the control group. Significant improvements were also observed in several physical performance parameters in the exercise, nutrition, and combination groups, as well as in the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey mental component summary score for the nutrition group. Conclusions:The designated home-based exercise and nutrition interventions can help pre-frail or frail older adults to improve their frailty score and physical performance. Trial registration: Retrospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: NCT03477097);

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A genetic linkage study of young-onset hypertension was performed on data from 59 nucleus families of Han Chinese residing in Taiwan. Thirty seven microsatellite markers near 18 hypertension candidate genes were genotyped. In a nonparametric identity-by-descent sibpair analysis, a positive linkage signal (defined as P<0.05) was found for four microsatellite markers, viz., D1S1612 (P=0.0162), D1S547 (P=0.0263), D8S 1145 (P= 0.0284), and D17S2193 (P=0.0256), which were located near genes for atrial natriuretic peptide (NPPA)/glucose transporter 5 (SLC2A5), angiotensinogen (AGT), lipoprotein lipase (LPL), and angiotensin-conveting enzyme (DCP1), respectively. Marker D5S1480 located near beta-2-adrenergic receptor (ADRB2) had a borderline P value (P=0.0785) for the positive signal. Comprehensive genotyping with further markers in these regions is underway to confirm whether these genes are linked to young-onset hypertension.

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