journal articles
A NON-CONTROLLED STUDY OF A MULTI-FACTORIAL EXERCISE AND NUTRITIONAL INTERVENTION TO IMPROVE FUNCTIONAL PERFORMANCE AND PREVENT FRAILTY PROGRESSION IN COMMUNITY-DWELLING PRE-FRAIL OLDER ADULTS
W.L. Low, R. Sultana, A.B. Huda Mukhlis, J.C.Y. Ho, A. Latib, E.L. Tay, S.M. Mah, H.N. Chan, Y.S. Ng, L. Tay
J Aging Res & Lifestyle 2021;10:1-7
Background: Preventing frailty is important to avoid adverse health outcomes. Intervention studies have largely focused on frail elderly, although the intermediate pre-frail state may be more amenable to improvement. Objectives: This study aims to assess how physical performance may change among pre-frail elderly enrolled in a pragmatic non-controlled exercise and nutritional intervention programme. Methods: This is a non-controlled study involving a 4-month exercise and nutritional intervention for community dwelling pre-frail older adults. Pre-frailty was defined as the presence of 1 or 2 positive responses on the FRAIL questionnaire, or evidence of weak grip strength (<26kg for males; <18kg for females) or slow gait speed (<0.8m/s) amongst participants who were asymptomatic on FRAIL. Physical performance in flexibility, grip and lower limb strength, endurance, balance, and Short Physical Performance Battery were measured at 3 time-points: baseline, 3-month from recruitment (without intervention), and immediate post-intervention. Repeated measures mixed model analysis was performed to compare physical performance measures across the 3 time-points. Results: 94 pre-frail participants were eligible for intervention, of whom 59 (mean age = 70.9±7.2 years) were ready for the post-intervention review. 21 (35.6%) transitioned to robust phenotype while 32 (54.2%) remained as pre-frail. Significant improvement post-intervention was observed in lower limb strength and power, evident on reduction in time taken for 5 sit-to-stand repetitions (0.46±0.20s, p=0.03). There was no significant change to the other physical performance measures examined. Conclusion: We observed reversibility of pre-frailty, and the benefit of multi-component intervention in improving physical performance of pre-frail older adults. The findings in this non-controlled study will need to be corroborated with future controlled trials.
CITATION:
W.L. Low ; R. Sultana ; A.B. Huda Mukhlis ; J.C.Y. Ho ; A. Latib ; E.L. Tay ; S.M. Mah ; H.N. Chan ; Y.S. Ng ; L. Tay (2021): A Non-Controlled Study of a Multi-factorial Exercise and Nutritional Intervention to Improve Functional Performance and Prevent Frailty Progression in Community-Dwelling Pre-frail Older Adults. The Journal of Aging and Lifestyle (JARLife). http://dx.doi.org/10.14283/jarlife.2021.1