The Effect of Multifactorial Intervention on Frailty in Vulnerable Older Adults Living in Rural Communities: A Designed Delay Trial

Frailty is a highly prevalent, progressive condition in older adults that is characterized by multisystem physiologic impairments and vulnerability to stressful events, leading to increased risk of geriatric conditions, disability, falls, hospitalization, and mortality. An effective public health intervention to improve frailty in a rural aging population with limited resources remains unknown. The purpose of our study is to evaluate the effectiveness of multidimensional public health intervention to reduce frailty and related geriatric conditions in older adults in rural communities. Our hypotheses are that a multidimensional intervention consisting of group exercise, nutritional support, depression management, polypharmacy, and home safety intervention over a 6-month period will improve frailty and selected geriatric conditions in older adults who are in low socioeconomic status or living alone in a rural community. Our primary outcome is short physical performance battery at 6 month. Secondary outcomes include frailty status, nutritional status, depression, falls, sarcopenia, and health care utilization. The investigators will conduct a designed delay trial by implementing our intervention in one town for the first 6 months (intervention group), while measuring the outcomes without any intervention in another town (serving as a control group); in the following 6 months, the investigators will implement the 6-month intervention in the control town. The findings from our study will inform us to find effective public health interventions to promote healthy aging in resource-limited, rural populations.