Individualized home-based exercise and nutrition interventions improve frailty in older adults: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

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);

Associations of Sleep Quality and Frailty among the Older Adults with Chronic Disease in China: The Mediation Effect of Psychological Distress

“…Thus, frailty among the individuals with chronic disease requires more attention. Moreover, studies suggest frailty is reversible and can be treated and delayed by interventions, such as health promotion, nutrition, physical, and social support [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Therefore, with the rapid growth of aging population, special attentions should be paid on exploring risk factors and preventing frailty among the older adults with chronic diseases.…”

Home Exercise Interventions in Frail Older Adults

“…Due to the previously mentioned lack of a standard definition for frailty, only studies utilizing a valid construct to define frailty for inclusion criteria were included. In total, 8 studies were included in this narrative review [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] (results from one intervention was published in four separate articles) [15][16][17][18].…”

“…We reviewed 8 studies (Table 1) [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. The analyzed interventions included a total sample of 1030 communityliving older adults (53% women) with a mean age of 79.6 ± 7.1 years.…”

“…Handgrip Strength Two studies assessed handgrip strength, which can be indicative of overall upper body strength [15,22]. Hsieh ; p = 0.009) and SoSu (0.5; 95% CI: 0.1 to 0.9; p = 0.011) groups.…”

Correction to: Individualized home-based exercise and nutrition interventions improve frailty in older adults: a randomized controlled trial

“…Following publication of the original article [1], the author reported that an abbreviation was incorrect in the original article; In the Appendix the abbreviation ‘cal’ was incorrect. The correct abbreviation is ‘kcal’.…”