Digital Pathway to Healthy Aging: Sarcopenia-Frailty Integrated Training

NCT ID: NCT07345832

Last Updated: 2026-01-21

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

NOT_YET_RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

200 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2026-02-28

Study Completion Date

2027-06-30

Brief Summary

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Sarcopenia and frailty prevention and management are highly prioritized goals in the Healthy Aging agenda. The study aims to evaluate the effects and implementation of the digital critical pathway to improve sarcopenia and frailty, reduce fall risk, and increase health-related quality of life among community-dwelling older adults with risk of, or diagnosed with, sarcopenia and frailty

Detailed Description

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Population ageing is accelerating globally and regionally, widening the gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, mainly due to late-life declines in physical function and mobility (Guo et al., 2022). Sarcopenia and frailty are major age-associated public health issues that contribute to a decline in functional ability, increased fall risks, and mortality (Lee et al., 2022; Petermann-Rocha et al., 2021). Nutrition and physical activity integrated interventions are recommended as primary treatment for sarcopenia and frailty (Park \& Lee, 2023). However, current interventions are often generic, resulting in non-precise, non-personalized interventions, usually failing to accommodate individual differences in baseline strength and mobility, nutrition status, comorbidities, preferences, and home environments (Tighe et al., 2020). Consequently, interventions are complex to personalise, adjustments are delayed, and adherence is suboptimal, undermining real-world effectiveness. Future community-based health agendas should prioritize long-term care that removes access barriers (such as mobility and transportation) and transitions from generic care to precision personalization.

The World Health Organisation's Decade of Healthy Ageing and the Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) framework provide a practice anchor to maintain intrinsic capacity through person-centred assessment, individualised goal-setting, and continuous follow-up. Within this paradigm, sarcopenia and frailty management apply ICOPE via protocol-driven critical pathways (Sum et al., 2022)-structured decision support that links risk assessment to tailored prescriptions and follow-up-can standardise quality while enabling precise personalisation across diverse home settings.

Digital health interventions have expanded their capabilities to include remote exercise prescription, microlearning, reminders, and tele-coaching, with evidence of benefits for physical activity, fitness, body composition, and patient-reported outcomes (De Santis et al., 2023). Utilising a user-friendly digital tool to streamline functional assessments and develop personalised health plans is a promising approach.

A digital platform-enabled intervention, grounded in the WHO ICOPE framework and a protocol-driven critical pathway, is proposed to identify care needs among community-dwelling older adults. This tool will allow healthcare providers to accurately assess individual needs and tailor interventions in exercise and nutrition, ensuring a focused, effective approach to combating sarcopenia and frailty in older adults.

Conditions

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Sarcopenia Sarcopenia in Elderly Fall Prevention in Healthy Aging Frailty Malnutrition Elderly

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

This Randomized Controlled Trial randomized 200 older adults with risk of, or diagnosed with, sarcopenia and frailty to receive the digital pathway intervention or a waiting list control group
Primary Study Purpose

PREVENTION

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Outcome Assessors
Outcome assessors will be blinded to the intervention assignment results.

Study Groups

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Digital Pathway to Healthy Aging: Sarcopenia-Frailty Integrated Training program

This digital program will address sarcopenia and frailty with a 12-week integrated intervention based on integrated exercise, nutrition, and fall-prevention.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Digital Pathway to Healthy Aging: Sarcopenia-Frailty Integrated Training program (D-Path-HA: S-FIT)

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

This digital program will address sarcopenia and frailty with a 12-week integrated intervention based on integrated exercise, nutrition, and fall-prevention. The intervention will be delivered by registered nurses, social workers, and health coach captains. Guided by the critical pathway and empowerment cycle framework, including a (1) Personalised Health Prescription Phase, (2) 12-Week Empowerment and Social Activity Phase, including six bi-weekly, in-person sessions empowerment workshop; scenario-based health message broadcast; case meeting.

Waitlist Control

The control group will receive general education on nutrition and physical activity guidelines for older adults, and the same pathway intervention will be applied to the control group after all data collection

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Waitlist Control

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The control group will receive general education on nutrition and physical activity guidelines for older adults, and the same pathway intervention will be applied to the control group after all data collection.

Interventions

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Digital Pathway to Healthy Aging: Sarcopenia-Frailty Integrated Training program (D-Path-HA: S-FIT)

This digital program will address sarcopenia and frailty with a 12-week integrated intervention based on integrated exercise, nutrition, and fall-prevention. The intervention will be delivered by registered nurses, social workers, and health coach captains. Guided by the critical pathway and empowerment cycle framework, including a (1) Personalised Health Prescription Phase, (2) 12-Week Empowerment and Social Activity Phase, including six bi-weekly, in-person sessions empowerment workshop; scenario-based health message broadcast; case meeting.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Waitlist Control

The control group will receive general education on nutrition and physical activity guidelines for older adults, and the same pathway intervention will be applied to the control group after all data collection.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* aged 60 or above
* Pseudo-Sarcopenia/Sarcopenia: SARC-CaIF ≥ 11, AND (Grip Strength on dominant hand (male \<28 kg, female \<18 kg), OR Chair Stand Test (5 times) ≥ 12 seconds, OR Short Physical Performance Battery Score ≤ 9; OR relative appendicular skeletal mass/ height (Men: \<7 kg/m2; women: \<5.7 kg/m2) ); AND/OR Prefrail/ frail based on the Edmonton Frail Scale Score ≥ 6.
* consent to participate

Exclusion Criteria

* having conditions contradictory to physical activity
* engaging in other ongoing physical activity and nutrition programs
Minimum Eligible Age

60 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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The University of Hong Kong

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Prof. Yu, Doris Sau Fung

Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Doris Sau Fung YU, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

The University of Hong Kong

Locations

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The University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong, , Hong Kong

Site Status

Countries

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Hong Kong

Central Contacts

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Doris Sau Fung YU, PhD

Role: CONTACT

852-3917-6319

Facility Contacts

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Doris Sau Fung YU, PhD

Role: primary

852-3917-6319

References

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Wang Z, Xu X, Gao S, Wu C, Song Q, Shi Z, Su J, Zang J. Effects of Internet-Based Nutrition and Exercise Interventions on the Prevention and Treatment of Sarcopenia in the Elderly. Nutrients. 2022 Jun 14;14(12):2458. doi: 10.3390/nu14122458.

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Reference Type RESULT
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Other Identifiers

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D-Path-HA: S-FIT

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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