The SPRINTT project: Tackling physical frailty and sarcopenia to prevent disability in the elderly

Abstract

The state of vulnerability that characterizes frailty exposes the individual to increased risk of adverse outcomes. The SPRINTT project has been designed to overcome the existing barriers for an efficient intervention against frailty. The project proposes a novel operationalisation of physical frailty that recognizes sarcopenia as its biological substrate. The randomized controlled trial (RCT) sponsored by SPRINTT translates the physical frailty/sarcopenia paradigm into a multi-component intervention aimed at preventing mobility disability and major negative health-related events in at-risk older adults. RCT operations take place in 16 sites, located in 11 European countries, under the coordination of the Dept. of Geriatrics of the Catholic University of Rome (Italy) and the support by members of EFPIA (Sanofi-Aventis R&D, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Servier). The primary outcome is incident mobility disability (i.e., inability to walk for 400 m in 15 min). 1519 participants have been enrolled. The intervention attendance is satisfactory (66% of expected center-based and 74% of home-based physical activity sessions attended). As for the control group, participants were present at more than 70% of the meetings. The dropout rate is approximately 6%.