NCT07513701

Enhancing Physical Reserve to Promote Resilience in Physically Frail Older Adults

Enhancing Physical Reserve to Promote Cognitive and Physical Resilience in Physically Frail Older Adults: A 3-Month Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 224 (estimated)
• Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 60 Years – 90 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to assess the efficacy of combined aerobic and resistance training in enhancing physical reserve in older adults with physical frailty. Investigator contend that enhanced physical reserve will enable preservation of cognitive and physical function. The main questions aims to answer are: (1) Compared with usual care (i.e., CON), will 3-month aerobic and resistance training (ATRT) improve physical reserve in older adults with physical frailty? (2) Compared with CON, will ATRT lead to changes in the neural network organization? (3) Will improved physical reserve lead to better maintenance of cognitive and physical functioning in spite of presence of white matter hyperintensities (WMH)?

Detailed description

Objectives: (1) To compared with usual care (i.e., CON), will 3-month aerobic and resistance training (ATRT) improve physical reserve in older adults with physical frailty? (2) Compared with CON, will ATRT lead to changes in the neural network organization? (3) Will improved physical reserve lead to better maintenance of cognitive and physical functioning in spite of presence of white matter hyperintensities (WMH)? (4) What is the association between exercise, neural network, and physical reserve? Hypotheses: Investigator hypothesize that (1) compared to participants randomly assigned to the CON, participants randomly assigned to the 3-month ATRT will show significantly enhanced physical reserve. (2) compared with participants randomly assigned to CON, participants randomly assigned to ATRT will show reduction in Dorsal Attention Network connectivity. (3) Enhanced physical reserve will moderate the negative association between WMH and Trail Making Test performance, as well as WMH and Short Physical Performance Battery performance. (4) combined aerobic and resistance training will enhance physical reserve via a mediated relationship with reduced Dorsal Attention Network connectivity. Design and subjects: A randomized controlled trial involving 224 community-dwelling older adults with physical frailty Study instruments: Magnetic resonance imaging Interventions: The designed exercise training will be progressive and moderate in intensity. Participants randomized to the ATRT group will undergo a 3-month (i.e., 13-weeks) four-sessions-per-week, 60-minute-per-session exercise with a 10-minute warm-up, 40-minute of moderate intensity exercise training, and 10-minute cool-down. There will be a total of 52 exercise sessions with a 1:3 research staffs (i.e., instructor and assistants) to study participants ratio. To promote participant safety, investigator will limit each session to 12 study participants. To ensure fidelity of the intervention across time, a detailed manual of procedures for each experimental group will be developed and used for staff training. Data analysis: All analyses will follow the intent to treat principle. The principle investigator will lead all analyses with support from collaborators on WMH quantification and structural MRI analyses. The intention-to-treat analysis will be conducted with multiple imputation followed by a complete-case analysis. Statistical significance for all analyses will be defined at α \< 0.05.

Conditions

• Frailty at Older Adults

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Aerobic and resistance training	The aerobic training sessions will involve standardized sets of stationary training, including on-spot jogging, burpees, aerobic steppers, agility ladders, and non-contact boxing. Each participant will rotate through the stations within the 40-minute training period, with one-minute of rest breaks in-between each station. A 20-point rate-of-perceived exertion will be used to monitor participant status during training with a target rate-of-perceived exertion of 16-17. The resistance training sessions will involve utilizing free weights and resistance bands to stimulate muscle strength. The set of movements include triceps extension, dumbbell bicep curls, seated overhead dumbbell press, bent-over dumbbell row, wall squats, standing calf raises, wall push-ups.
BEHAVIORAL	Usual Care	Participant Retention and Care: Investigator will implement strategies to promote participant retention by: (1) conducting monthly phone calls by the project assistant to encourage and motivate participants to stay within the study; (2) discussing participant barriers/distress and developing coping/action plans; (3) providing monthly updates in the form of in-person/online/phone sessions; and (4) offering a comprehensive report on cognitive function, mobility, brain MRI, and monetary compensation for their time upon completion of the study. Investigator will facilitate participant care by recording incidental findings from the MRI and providing clinical assessment data that may be shared with healthcare providers upon request. All personnel on the research team will be trained to detect/assess distress or any possibility of harm and respond appropriately.

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-01-19
• Primary completion: 2028-12-31
• Completion: 2029-03-31
• First posted: 2026-04-07
• Last updated: 2026-04-07

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Hong Kong