HOPE (Healthy Older People Everyday) To Age in Place

Overview

Certain clinical syndromes eg frailty, sarcopenia, dementia, depression, cognitive impairment, vision impairment, falls in older adults carry an increased risk for poor health outcomes and if identified early, can be prevented, delayed or reversible. There is evidence to suggest that exercise and dietary intervention can help delay or prevent sarcopenia, frailty and dementia. Through early screening and detection of frailty and cognitive impairment, the investigators will be able to identify participants at risk of future physical or mental decline in primary care setting and ambulatory care clinics. Those prefrail, frail but ambulant with / without cognitive impairment will be randomised to dual task exercise with/without cognitive stimulation therapy and health education. The main hypothesis is that the combination of multicomponent group exercise activities and dual task exercise is effective in reversing frailty and improving cognition.

Major challenges in the Singapore healthcare landscape include a rapidly aging population, due to rising life expectancy at birth combined with declining total fertility, and an epidemiological transition in the main source of disease burden from communicable and infectious conditions to non-communicable, chronic conditions. While acute care will always remain a crucial component of healthcare delivery systems, the increased healthcare burden centered on chronic diseases and the concomitant aging population is putting increased strain on healthcare resources. Frailty is reversible and progression to dementia can be delayed. From most recent study, prevalence of pre-frailty is 37% and mild cognitive impairment about 15-20%. WHO's definition of healthy ageing is maintaining functional ability. Cognicise, a dual task exercise has shown to delay decline in cognition and there are many studies which shows aerobic exercise improves endurance. Patients seen in Geriatric, Medicine Clinic or polyclinics who are prefrail, frail but ambulant with / without cognitive impairment will be randomised to dual task exercise with/without cognitive stimulation therapy and health education. In addition, high protein diet has been shown to improve muscle protein synthesis. Therefore, the aims of the study are to assess: a) Assess the effectiveness of dual task exercise with/without cognitive stimulation therapy b) Effect of health education alone for delaying the progression to dementia and mobility decline c) Assess impact of exercise on inflammatory and bone health biomarkers eg IL, TNF, Osteocalcin, sclerostin and C telopeptide in a subgroup of older adults randomly selected.