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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2023 May 17:18:809-825.
doi: 10.2147/CIA.S405144. eCollection 2023.

Individualized Hospital to Home, Exercise-Nutrition Self-Managed Intervention for Pre-Frail and Frail Hospitalized Older Adults: The INDEPENDENCE Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial

Chad Yixian Han  1 , Yogesh Sharma  2   3 , Alison Yaxley  1 , Claire Baldwin  1 , Richard Woodman  2 , Michelle Miller  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Individualized Hospital to Home, Exercise-Nutrition Self-Managed Intervention for Pre-Frail and Frail Hospitalized Older Adults: The INDEPENDENCE Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial

Chad Yixian Han et al. Clin Interv Aging. .

Abstract

Purpose: Pre-frailty and frailty in older adults are associated with poor health outcomes and increase health-care costs, and further worsening during hospitalization. This study aimed to examine the effect of an individualized hospital to home, exercise-nutrition self-managed intervention for pre-frail and frail hospitalized older adults.

Patients and methods: Older adults admitted to an acute medical unit of a tertiary hospital in South Australia who were pre-frail or frail were recruited from September 2020 to June 2021, randomized to either control or intervention group and followed up at 3 and 6 months. The outcome variables were program adherence, frailty status by the Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS) score, lower extremity physical function, handgrip strength, nutritional status, cognition, mood, health-related quality of life, risk of functional decline, unplanned readmissions.

Results: Participants were 79.2 ±6.6 years old, 63% female, mostly frail (67%), with EFS of 8.6±1.9. Adherence to the inpatient and home visits/telehealth intervention were high (91±13% and 92±21%, respectively). Intention-to-treat analysis using linear regression models showed that participants in the intervention group had significantly greater reduction in EFS at 3 (-3.0; 95% CI: -4.8 to -3.0) and 6 months (-2.5; 95% CI: -3.8 to -1.0, P<0.001 for both) compared to the control group; particularly the functional performance component. There were also improvements in overall Short Physical Performance Battery score at 3 (4.0; 95% CI: 1.3 to 6.6) and 6 months (3.9; 95% CI: 1.0 to 6.9, P<0.05 for both), mini-mental state examination (2.6; 95% 0.3-4.8, P=0.029) at 3 months and handgrip strength (3.7; 95% CI: 0.2-7.1, P=0.039) and Geriatric Depression Scale, at 6 months (-2.2; 95% CI: -4.1 to -0.30, P=0.026) in the intervention group as compared to control.

Conclusion: This study provided evidence of acceptability to a patient self-managed exercise-nutrition program that may benefit and alleviate pre-frailty and frailty in hospitalised older adults.

Keywords: exercise; frailty; nutrition therapy; self-management.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of the Independence study with CONSORT Flow Diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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