Physical Frailty and Sarcopenia: Development of a Framework for Supporting Interventions Against Incident Mobility Disability

Abstract

In 2014, the Innovative Medicines Initiative funded a 48-million Euros project entitled "Sarcopenia and Physical fRailty IN older people: multi-componenT Treatment strategies" (SPRINTT). The SPRINTT consortium federates partners from academia, industry, and the private sector to address an important gap in the geriatric field: the lack of a standardized and clinically relevant definition of sarcopenia. In particular, the SPRINTT project aims to involve all major stakeholders in the framing of a skeletal muscle-specific risk profile that exposes the individual at risk of negative health-related outcomes (in particular, disability), is amenable to benefiting from preventive interventions, and meets the standards requested by regulatory agencies. During the first year of activity, the SPRINTT consortium has implemented a "Physical Frailty & Sarcopenia" (PF&S) condition that considers existing evidence and regularly exchanges information with the European Medicines Agency. This condition is currently the study objective of a 3-year randomized controlled trial in multiple countries across Europe. The trial aims to verify whether a multicomponent intervention (based on physical activity and nutritional counseling) can prevent the onset of mobility disabilities in community-dwelling older persons with PF&S. The present article provides an overview of the SPRINTT background and rationale and explains the details of the PF&S condition.

Use of the Frailty Index and FRAIL-NH Scale for the Assessment of the Frailty Status of Elderly Individuals Admitted in a Long-term Care Hospital in Korea

“…Frailty is defined as a state of increased vulnerability to possible stressors owing to a decreased physiological reserve in elderly individuals, 9,10) and it leads to adverse outcomes in geriatric patients, including injuries due to falls, 11) worsening of sarcopenia, 12) functional declines, and even death. 13) In this context, frailty in elderly individuals admitted in LTCHs in Korea must be addressed to ensure appropriate therapeutic decision-making because the prevalence of frailty associated with disability or multimorbidity is the primary cause of admission in an LTCH.…”

Validation of the Korean Frailty Index in community-dwelling older adults in a nationwide Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort study

“…The Korean Journal of Internal Medicine. 2020 Apr 17. [Epub ahead of print] decision making to provide tailored multidisciplinary geriatric care and prevent adverse geriatric outcomes in older adults [7,10].…”

Systemic and Local Phenotypes of Barium Chloride Induced Skeletal Muscle Injury in Mice

“… 6) In the pathophysiology of sarcopenia, a common geriatric condition defined by reduced muscle strength, performance and/or muscle mass, multifaceted causes including sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition, hormonal changes with aging, and systemic inflammation have been reported to accelerate muscle wasting in older adults. 7 – 10) Biologically, one of the contributing factors for sarcopenia is a decreased ability of aged muscle to regenerate following injury, 11 , 12) prompting research to study the effects of aging on muscle stem cells and its paracrine milieu in muscle regeneration processes after injury.…”