A Dyadic e-Health System on Enhancing Healthy Lifestyles of Older Adults With Sarcopenia

Summary

Sarcopenia is defined as a reduction in muscle mass, muscle strength, and physical performance. Without proper management, sarcopenia may result in adverse health outcomes. Continuously maintain healthy lifestyle, such as being physically active, taking adequate protein in daily diet, are effective in preventing and managing sarcopenia. e-Health has been used successfully to translate evidence-based lifestyle interventions into daily practice by enhancing self-awareness, promoting self-monitor and sustaining self-management for other populations with different health problems.

This project aims to develop, implement and evaluate the preliminary effects of an e-Health System to encourage older adults with sarcopenia to maintain healthy lifestyles (i.e. regular exercise and adequate intake of high-quality protein). Combining the concepts of smart health, the System aims to enhance users' self-monitoring (Level 1) and self-management (Level 2) of sarcopenia.

Level 1 aims to enhance participants' and their family members' awareness of the risks of sarcopenia through continued monitoring. The System will perform baseline and regular subjective (such as self-administered questionnaires) and objective (such as activity levels by an embedded accelerometer) assessments on the participants. The embedded risk calculator in the System will analyze the scores obtained from different assessments and then recommend participants to follow the healthy lifestyle interventions in Level 2.

Level 2 aims to enhance participants' and their family members' ability to manage the health problems related sarcopenia. The System will recommend two major evidence-based lifestyle interventions, including physical exercise and nutritional advice, based on the analysis of the assessment data in Level 1. These interventions will be conducted during the four face-to-face sessions and continuously self-practised at home. The interventions will provide interactive, immediate feedback to the participants and their family members to improve their involvement. The participants and their family members can monitor their progress via the System.

The investigators hypothesize that the experimental group who has adopted the e-Health system in their daily life to manage sarcopenia will exhibit milder symptoms of sarcopenia and more sustainable self-management ability than participants in the control group who has received usual care.

Conditions

• Sarcopenia

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

e-Health System with nutritional advice

A 12-week intervention consisting of a 4-weekly group-based, face-to-face supervised sessions, and an 8-week self-management phase will be arranged to the experimental group. The features of the System will be introduced to the users and their family members in the first two face-to-face sessions. The users and their family members will then be able to start using the System with the mobile app. In the other two sessions, all participants in the experimental group will learn how to accurately complete their dietary records in the e-Health System and will be provided with nutritional advice. For the 8-week self-management phase, the participants will be recommended to follow the lifestyle interventions to relieve their problems related to sarcopenia. The participants are required to fill in their dietary record in the e-Health System every day, and will be provided with nutritional advice to improve high-quality protein and leucine intake, which is essential for muscle building.

BEHAVIORAL

The Exercise Training

For the 8-week self-management phase, the participants will be recommended to follow the lifestyle interventions to relieve their problems related to sarcopenia. The participants in the experimental group will also be suggested to continually practise exercise training at home for 30 minutes at least 5 times per week. Participants can review the self-learning exercise videos embedded in the System. The exercise trainings include: a) progressive resistance training to improve muscle strength; and b) brisk walking exercise to maintain walkability.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Justina Liu, PhD · The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

60 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-05-06

Primary Completion

2025-06-30

Completion

2026-01-01

Countries

• Hong Kong

Study Locations