After the age of 40-45 years muscle mass and function progressively decline, reducing older peoples' abilities to perform tasks of daily living and also increase the risk of falls. It is known that, across the life course, resistance exercise can be of benefit in increasing muscle mass and function, yet how hard the exercise should be performed has received little attention. Current recommendations are for older people to perform exercise at 70% of the maximum they can lift, quite a high intensity that often puts older people off participating. Recent evidence in younger people has suggested that such intensities are not required. The investigators aim to determine the feasibility of a study to investigate recruitment and adherence of older people to a study of exercise training at different intensities.
The cohort will comprise two sets of participants: frail older adults and non-frail older adults. Each participant will receive 8 weeks of twice weekly supervised resistance training. Both the frail and non-frail participants will be randomised into either receiving high load resistance training or low load resistance training. High load resistance training will be delivered at 70% of the participants maximal capacity and low load resistance training will be delivered at 30% of maximal capacity. All resistance training will focus on the lower limb and regardless of intensity each exercise will be done to failure (unable to complete another full repetition).
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
60
Moving muscles against loads with the purpose of increasing strength.
Glasgow Royal Infirmary
Glasgow, United Kingdom
RECRUITINGNumber of training sessions attended
Expressed as a percentage of number of sessions attended
Time frame: 8 weeks
Compliance with protocol
Expressed as a percentage of number of sessions where training protocol was adhered to
Time frame: 8 weeks
Number of treatment-related adverse events as assessed by CTCAE v4.0
Number of adverse events that could be attributed to the intervention
Time frame: 8 weeks
Acceptability of intervention (qualitative)
focus groups with semi-structured discussion plans will investigate the acceptability of the intervention
Time frame: 8 weeks
Muscle thickness
Thickness of vastus lateralus using ultrasound (mm)
Time frame: 8 weeks
Muscle power
Maximum voluntary contraction of a muscle at a set angle to produce a torque (kg)
Time frame: 8 weeks
Muscle strength
Maximal load participant can lift (kg)
Time frame: 8 weeks
Frailty
As measured by the Fried criteria. These are low energy expenditure, slow gait speed, weak grip strength, exhaustion, and unintentional weight loss. Fulfilling three of these criteria indicates clinical frailty.
Time frame: 8 weeks
Quality of life
Measured using the Euroqol EQ-5 Dimension- 5 Level self report measure. This scale measures quality of life in 5 dimensions and produces an index of quality of life rangin from a worst quality of life at -1 to best quality of life at 1.
Time frame: 8 weeks
Activities of daily living
Measured using the Barthel index. This scale measures ten variables of activities of daily living and produces an overall score. This ranges from 0-20 with a higher score indicating greater independence.
Time frame: 8 weeks
Activities of daily living
Measured using the Lawton ADL scale. this self report measures assess independence in daily living in 8 different domains but produces an overall score. Scores range from 0-8 with 8 indicating full independence.
Time frame: 8 weeks
Functional abilities
Short performance battery test. This battery of tests assesses balance, gait speed and lower limb strength. Scores are awarded for each individual section and aggregated ranging from 0-12 with a higher score indicating greater physical capability.
Time frame: 8 weeks
motion analysis
biomechanical assessment using infr-red motion analysis cameras
Time frame: 8 weeks
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