Physical Activity Intervention Beneficial Among Frail OAs

Frailer older adults (OAs) benefited from a 2-year physical activity intervention regarding major mobility disability (MMD), according to recent study findings published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Researchers examined whether the physical activity intervention would lead to clinically meaningful frailty changes (CMC), improve frailty trajectory, or impact MMD across baseline frailty levels among OAs.

Data from the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence Study for 1635 community-dwelling participants aged 70 to 89 years (mean baseline age [SD]: 78.9 [5.2] years, 67.2% female) were analyzed for the study.

Study participants were randomized and placed into either health education intervention or physical activity intervention groups. A 44-item frailty index was established at baseline, .5-, 1-, 1.5-, and 2-year intervals.

MMD was defined as the inability to complete a 400 m-walk within 15 minutes without assistance and CMC was a change in the frailty index of .03 or greater. The physical activity and health education intervention groups both had a mean frailty index (SD) of .18 (.10) at baseline.

The MMD rates for physical activity and health education were 30.1% (246/818) and 35.5% (290/817).

Regarding the composite MMD and death, there was no frailty index-by-intervention interaction,” wrote researchers. “Simple association analyses revealed that when baseline frailty index was centered at .15 or higher, the physical activity intervention was associated with lower risk of MMD or death compared to HE (HR [CI] range for frailty index ≥ .15: .65-.81 [.43-.67, .90-.98]).”

Reference:
Quach J, Theou O, Pérez-Zepeda MU, Godin J, Rockwood K, Kehler DS. Effect of a physical activity intervention and frailty on frailty trajectory and major mobility disability. J Am Geriatr Soc. Published online July 2, 2022. doi:10.1111/jgs.17941