The Effect of Caffeine in Elderly Citizen Following Eight Hour Abstinence From Caffeine Containing Drinks & Foods

Phase 4

Completed

• Conditions: Healthy; Elderly
• Interventions: Drug: Caffeine

• Registration Number: NCT01048515
• Lead Sponsor: Herning Hospital

Brief Summary

The study investigated the effect of caffeine on physical performance in healthy citizens aged over 70 years following eight hours of abstinence from caffeine containing drinks and foods. The main hypothesis was that 6 mg/kg caffeine would improve cycling endurance at 65% of expected maximal heart rate.

Detailed Description

It is well documented that caffeine ingestion increases the endurance of young people exercising at 60%-85% of their maximal oxygen uptake (13;15;47). It also seems to improve endurance as measured by repeated sub-maximal isometric contraction (42), and decreases the rate of perceived exertion during exercise (6;9;46). Typically, doses of approximately 6 mg/kg caffeine were used in these studies.

With a growing number of elderly with a physical active lifestyle and many elderly participating in rehabilitation programs the endurance enhancing effect of caffeine is of increasing interest in this age group. We therefore conducted a study of healthy 75 year old citizens to investigate whether 6 mg/kg caffeine improved physical performance and reduced the perceived effort during work in healthy citizens aged ≥ 70 years. The main hypothesis was that caffeine would improve cycling endurance at 65% of expected maximal heart rate. The study showed that compared to placebo caffeine increased endurance by 25 % (p\<0.0001) and isometric sub-maximal strength with 54 % (p\<0.0001), reduced perceived exertion after 5 minutes of biking by 11 % (p=0.002), but in 21 of 30 participants there was reduced postural stability (with eyes open). In the above described study participants abstained from caffeine containing drinks and foods for 48 hours prior to each test. Half of the participants reported withdrawal symptoms. Such a long caffeine abstinence period would infer with daily life for many people. We therefore invited the participants from the above study to a repetition of the above study to test whether similar results would be obtained if participants only abstained from caffeine containing drinks and foods for 8 hours prior to each test.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2005-02
• Primary Completion: 2005-11
• Status Verified: 2010-01
• Study First Submitted: 2010-01-12
• Study First Submitted QC: 2010-01-12
• Last Update Submitted: 2010-01-12
• Study First Posted: 2010-01-13
• Last Update Posted: 2010-01-13

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 30

Inclusion Criteria

• Healthy elderly individuals aged over 70 years (Primarily those who previously have participated in an identical study with 48 hour caffeine abstinence)

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Exclusion Criteria

• Dementia or invalidating psychiatric disease
• General debility, angina, or other diseases that would render participation in the test program impossible
• Treatment with beta receptor blocking drugs, calcium-channel blocking drugs, digitalis, or nitroglycerine
• Acute disease and injury
• Diabetes
• Conditions that would contraindicate caffeine ingestion or participation in the test program
• Treatment with medication that interacts with caffeine
• Ingestion of caffeine containing drinks and foods 8 hours before each session

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: CROSSOVER

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Caffeine	Caffeine	-
Placebo	Caffeine	-

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Endurance measured on an ergometer bicycle	The tests started 1 h following placebo/caffeine

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Isometric endurance (arm flexion)	The tests started 1 h following placebo/caffeine
Isometric maximum arm flexion strength	The tests started 1 h following placebo/caffeine
Fatigue (Borg scale) during ergometer test	After 5 minutes biking and at exhaustion
Postural stability	The tests started 1 h following placebo/caffeine
Reaction time	The tests started 1 h following placebo/caffeine
Walking speed	The tests started 1 h following placebo/caffeine
Biochemistry: lactate, catecholamines, insulin, free fatty acids, glucose	Before intervention; before cycling; after 5 minutes of cycling; and at exhaustion
Withdrawal symptoms	At the end of each test
Side effects	At the end of each test

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Surgical Research Department; 🇩🇰 Herning, Midtjylland, Denmark