Abstract
BackgroundMild or pre-frailty is common and associated with increased risks of hospitalisation, functional decline, moves to long-term care, and death. Little is known about the effectiveness of health promotion in reducing these risks. This systematic review aimed to synthesise randomised controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating home and community-based health promotion interventions for older people with mild/pre-frailty.MethodsWe searched 20 bibliographic databases and 3 trials registers (January 1990 – May 2016) using mild/pre-frailty and associated terms. We included randomised controlled and crossover trials of health promotion interventions for community-dwelling older people (65+ years) with mild/pre-frailty and excluded studies focussing on populations in hospital, long term care facilities or with a specific condition. Risk of bias was assessed by two reviewers using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. We pooled study results using standardised mean differences (SMD) where possible and used narrative synthesis where insufficient outcome data were available.ResultsWe included 10 articles reporting on seven trials (total n = 506 participants) and included five trials in a meta-analysis. Studies were predominantly small, of limited quality and six studies tested group exercise alone. One study additionally investigated a nutrition and exercise intervention and one evaluated telemonitoring. Interventions of exercise in groups showed mixed effects on functioning (no effects on self-reported functioning SMD 0.19 (95% CI -0.57 to 0.95) n = 3 studies; positive effects on performance-based functioning SMD 0.37 (95% CI 0.07 to 0.68) n = 3 studies). No studies assessed moves to long-term care or hospitalisations.ConclusionsCurrently the evidence base is of insufficient size, quality and breadth to recommend specific health promotion interventions for older people with mild or pre- frailty. High quality studies of rigorously developed interventions are needed.PROSPERO registrationCRD42014010370 (Review 2).
Highlights
Mild or pre-frailty is common and associated with increased risks of hospitalisation, functional decline, moves to long-term care, and death
Estimates suggest that 10.7% of community-dwelling older adults in developed countries are frail [4] and 42% have the transitional state of pre-frailty, where an person has some frailty characteristics but is able to respond to injury, disease or stress with a chance of complete recovery [1]
Other definitions include the Rockwood Clinical Frailty Scale [3], the cumulative deficits model [5] and less frequently used performance-based or self-reported assessments [6]
Summary
Mild or pre-frailty is common and associated with increased risks of hospitalisation, functional decline, moves to long-term care, and death. Frailty is a transitional process of increasing vulnerability to adverse health outcomes and reduced functional reserves, in which persons have an increasing risk of functional decline, disability, falls, hospitalisation and death [1,2,3]. Though less vulnerable than frail older adults, pre-frail people are at higher risk than robust adults of greater frailty, hospitalisation, falls, worsening disability and mortality [2]. Older people with mild or pre-frailty are more likely to transition back to a robust state than those who are frail [8], and so health promotion represents an important opportunity to prevent decline and dependence, and to potentially make gains in health and reductions in disability and need for care
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