Tackling Disruptions to Frailty Interventions: Developing Personalized Interventions Targeted for Older Persons With Cardiac Frailty

NCT ID: NCT05946174

Last Updated: 2025-06-05

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

500 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2023-07-12

Study Completion Date

2028-06-21

Brief Summary

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Background: Muscle mass loss and metabolic dysfunction, exacerbated by inactivity and nutritional inadequacies, underpin both cardiovascular disease and frailty in ageing. The investigators' proposal seeks to develop interventions in exercise and diet that are targeted for older adults with cardiac frailty.

Methods:

The investigators' proposal is a five-year study comprising of first phase (first 2-2.5 years) and second phase (next 2-2.5 years). In the first phase cardiac frail participants (up to N=500) from each healthcare transition (inpatient hospital, step-down community hospital, outpatient clinic/community) will be randomized to receive Intervention Sets or usual care. The second phase will scale up these programs. Three Intervention Sets A, B, and C will be implemented in the outpatient, step-down community hospital, and acute hospital settings. Diet intervention comprises meal sets prepared with nutrients involved in energy metabolism. Exercise training is facilitated by hospital gyms and hospital physiotherapists. Diet and exercise behavior will be monitored using questionnaires, video conferencing and meal photos.

Significance: Clinical studies are urgently needed using consistent frailty tools to evaluate the efficacy and promise of frailty interventions, targeted to achieve reversal/retardation of frailty. When scaled up, these approaches will provide high-quality science needed to manage cardiac frailty towards healthier population ageing.

Detailed Description

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BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease is a formidable disruptor of interventions related to exercise intervention. Patients and physicians face uncertainty about dispensing safe and effective exercise programs to frail patients with concomitant cardiovascular disease. This hesitancy permeates across transitions from acute to step-down care to community settings. Uncertainties include fear of exacerbating heart conditions, individual variability in exercise response and what exercise targets to reach that is rational for each patient. Often, little or no exercise intervention is applied in the acute to step-down phases, which are the periods most critical for frailty reversal. Current dietary interventions do not address the special nutritional needs of acute cardiovascular conditions like heart failure, and may paradoxically induce a syndrome of cardiac cachexia that contributes to the downward spiral of frailty.

STUDY DESIGN:

This will be a prospective randomized clinical trial.

The investigators' proposal is a five-year study comprising of first phase (first 2-2.5 years) and second phase (next 2-2.5 years). In the first phase cardiac frail participants (up to N=500) from each healthcare transition (inpatient hospital, step-down community hospital, outpatient clinic/community) will be randomized to receive Intervention Sets or usual care. The second phase will scale up these programs. At enrolment, pre-defined study time points and end of study, participants will undergo assessments of clinical status, frailty status, cardiovascular function, nutrition, quality of life (QOL), diet/exercise behaviour, and biospecimen sampling. Three Intervention Sets will be implemented in the outpatient, step-down community hospital, and acute hospital settings. Diet intervention comprises meal sets prepared with nutrients involved in energy metabolism. During the trial, exercise intervention is performed in hospitals and community hospitals by physiotherapists. Associated factors such as dietary, comorbidities and other related habits will be tracked simultaneously during the trial

Intervention Set A: exercise sessions and meals over approximately 12 weeks. Intervention Set B : exercise sessions and meals over approximately 3 weeks. Intervention Set C: meals over approximately 3 weeks.

PROCEDURES

1. Baseline Procedures i. Cardiovascular measurements

* Non-invasive brachial blood pressure machine
* Echocardiography
* Electrocardiography ii. Biospecimen collection iii. Six-minute walk test iv. Musculoskeletal Analysis v. Cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET)/ Treadmill vi. Questionnaires vii. Timed up and go (TUG) test
2. Post-intervention procedures i. Cardiovascular measurements

* Non-invasive brachial blood pressure machine
* Echocardiography
* Electrocardiography ii. Biospecimen collection iii. Six-minute walk test iv. Musculoskeletal Analysis v. Questionnaires vi. Timed up and go (TUG) test
3. Closing questionnaires

Conditions

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Cardiovascular Diseases

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Set A comprises of outpatient clinic/ community participants, who will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio into Group A1 (receiving Intervention Set A- exercise sessions and meals over approximately 12 weeks) or Group A2 (control/ usual care)

Set B comprises of step-down community hospital participants, who will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio into Group B1 (receiving Intervention Set B- exercise sessions and meals over approximately 3 weeks) or Group B2 (control/ usual care)

Set C comprises of acute community hospital participants, who will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio into Group C1 (receiving Intervention Set C- meals over approximately 3 weeks) or Group C2 (control/ usual care)
Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Outpatient clinic/community participants receiving exercise sessions and meals (A1)

Outpatient clinic/community participants receiving intervention Set A (exercise sessions and meals over approximately 12 weeks)

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Intervention Set A

Intervention Type OTHER

exercise sessions and meals over approximately 12 weeks

Outpatient clinic/community participants receiving control/usual care (A2)

Outpatient clinic/community participants receiving control/usual care

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Step-down community hospital participants receiving exercise sessions and meals (B1)

Step-down community hospital participants receiving Intervention Set B (exercise sessions and meals over approximately 3 weeks)

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Intervention Set B

Intervention Type OTHER

exercise sessions and meals over approximately 3 weeks

Step-down community hospital participants receiving control/usual care (B2)

Step-down community hospital participants receiving control/usual care

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Acute hospital participants receiving meals (C1)

Acute hospital participants receiving Intervention Set C (meals over approximately 3 weeks)

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Intervention Set C

Intervention Type OTHER

meals over approximately 3 weeks

Acute hospital participants receiving control/usual care (C2)

Acute hospital participants receiving control/usual care

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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Intervention Set A

exercise sessions and meals over approximately 12 weeks

Intervention Type OTHER

Intervention Set B

exercise sessions and meals over approximately 3 weeks

Intervention Type OTHER

Intervention Set C

meals over approximately 3 weeks

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Age ≥ 21 years old
* Outdoor ambulant

Exclusion Criteria

1. Bed-bound
2. Dementia (Stage 6 onwards)
3. Residing in sheltered or nursing home
4. Cancer (to avoid confounding with cardiac disease sequelae from cancer)
5. Participation in ongoing clinical trials that involve interventional drugs or devices
6. Uncontrolled hypertension (systolic blood pressure ≥160mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥90mmHg) despite being on treatment for hypertension
7. Low blood pressure (systolic blood pressure \<90mmHg or diastolic blood pressure \<40mmHg)
8. Uncontrolled atrial fibrillation (controlled atrial fibrillation is allowed)
9. Ventricular arrhythmias (such as ventricular tachycardia)
10. Renal failure on dialysis
11. Chronic kidney disease Stage 4 and above
12. Nephrotic syndrome
13. Liver cirrhosis Child's B and above
14. Inflammatory Bowel Disease
15. Severe uncontrolled gout
16. Poorly controlled Diabetes Hba1c ≥9%
17. On warfarin
18. Presence of food allergies (such as shell-fish, prawn)
19. Patient's life expectancy is expected to be less than one year at the time of potential enrolment as assessed by the investigator
20. Nasogastric or parenteral nutrition
21. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
22. Cardiac amyloidosis
23. Cardiac sarcoidosis
Minimum Eligible Age

21 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

100 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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National Heart Centre Singapore

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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Angela Su-Mei Koh, MBBS, MPH

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

National Heart Centre Singapore

Locations

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Alexandra Hospital

Singapore, , Singapore

Site Status RECRUITING

National Heart Centre Singapore

Singapore, , Singapore

Site Status RECRUITING

Changi General Hospital

Singapore, , Singapore

Site Status RECRUITING

Sengkang General Hospital

Singapore, , Singapore

Site Status RECRUITING

Jurong Community Hospital

Singapore, , Singapore

Site Status RECRUITING

NHG Polyclinics

Singapore, , Singapore

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

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Singapore

Central Contacts

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Angela Su-Mei Koh

Role: CONTACT

+65 6704 8961

Gina Sihui Lee

Role: CONTACT

+65 6704 2228

Facility Contacts

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Laureen Yi-Ting Wang

Role: primary

Angela Su-Mei Koh, MBBS, MPH

Role: primary

+65 6704 8961

Gina Sihui Lee

Role: backup

+65 6704 2228

Chun How Ooi

Role: primary

Zijuan Huang

Role: primary

Alvin Ong

Role: primary

Shu Yun Tan

Role: primary

References

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Koh AS, Gao F, Leng S, Kovalik JP, Zhao X, Tan RS, Fridianto KT, Ching J, Chua SJ, Yuan JM, Koh WP, Zhong L. Dissecting Clinical and Metabolomics Associations of Left Atrial Phasic Function by Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Feature Tracking. Sci Rep. 2018 May 25;8(1):8138. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-26456-8.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 29802321 (View on PubMed)

Koh AS, Gao F, Liu J, Fridianto KT, Ching J, Tan RS, Wong JI, Chua SJ, Leng S, Zhong L, Keng BM, Huang FQ, Yuan JM, Koh WP, Kovalik JP. Metabolomic profile of arterial stiffness in aged adults. Diab Vasc Dis Res. 2018 Jan;15(1):74-80. doi: 10.1177/1479164117733627. Epub 2017 Oct 4.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 28976207 (View on PubMed)

Keng BMH, Gao F, Teo LLY, Lim WS, Tan RS, Ruan W, Ewe SH, Koh WP, Koh AS. Associations between Skeletal Muscle and Myocardium in Aging: A Syndrome of "Cardio-Sarcopenia"? J Am Geriatr Soc. 2019 Dec;67(12):2568-2573. doi: 10.1111/jgs.16132. Epub 2019 Aug 16.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 31418823 (View on PubMed)

Koh AS, Gao F, Tan RS, Zhong L, Leng S, Zhao X, Fridianto KT, Ching J, Lee SY, Keng BMH, Yeo TJ, Tan SY, Tan HC, Lim CT, Koh WP, Kovalik JP. Metabolomic correlates of aerobic capacity among elderly adults. Clin Cardiol. 2018 Oct;41(10):1300-1307. doi: 10.1002/clc.23016.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 30350416 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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2023/2086

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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