Tackling FRAILTY: ACTIVE-AGE@home: a home-based functional exercise program for community dwelling frail older adults.

The growing number of frail older people is exposed to high risks of adverse health outcomes e.g. falls, hospitalization, diminished mobility, increased disability in activities of daily living and ultimately premature death. Frailty affects also health-care expenditure. Physical activity (PA) interventions are the first-choice treatment to tackle frailty, but this is mostly not the first choice of the frail themselves. PA programs should be culturally appropriate, population-based taking into account barriers and facilitators reported by the frail themselves. In order to overcome the barriers and optimally benefit from the facilitators, we developed and piloted a functional training program based on the British Medical Research Council guidance, ACTIVE-AGE@home. In this program each person's goals will be identified and achieved for. The Proof of Concept studies were promising and so, we set out to conduct a pragmatic RCT to test the effectiveness and costeffectiveness. Participants are frail community dwelling older adults, the intervention is a PA program administered by professionals and the same program delivered by volunteers under supervision of professionals which we will compare with a control group receiving care as usual. The primary outcome of the study is the timed chair rise since this is one of the most important functional evaluation clinical tests because it measures lower body strength and relates it to the most demanding activities of daily living. The test is also proven valid, reliable, responsive to change. The TCR is considered a 'stress test', i.e. a test that aims to challenge the maximal physiological and/or physical capacity of the participant. Positive results will help to reduce health and social expenditures and allow to collaboration in prevention and health promotion. Therefore, during the project, a synergistic relation between all relevant stakeholders is forseen.

Keywords:FRAIL ELDERLY, VOLUNTEER, PHYSIOTHERAPY, AGEING

Disciplines:Physiotherapy, Rehabilitation, Gerontology and geriatrics not elsewhere classified

Project type:Collaboration project