title: The Home-Based Older People's Exercise (HOPE) trial: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Frailty is common in older age, and is associated with important adverse health outcomes including increased risk of disability and admission to hospital or long-term care. Exercise interventions for frail older people have the potential to reduce the risk of these adverse outcomes by increasing muscle strength and improving mobility.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Home-Based Older People's Exercise (HOPE) trial is a two arm, assessor blind pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) to assess the effectiveness of a 12 week exercise intervention (the HOPE programme) designed to improve the mobility and functional abilities of frail older people living at home, compared with usual care. The primary outcome is the timed-up-and-go test (TUGT), measured at baseline and 14 weeks post-randomisation. Secondary outcomes include the Barthel Index of activities of daily living (ADL), EuroQol Group 5-Dimension Self-Report Questionnaire (EQ-5D) quality of life measure and the geriatric depression scale (GDS), measured at baseline and 14 weeks post-randomisation. We will record baseline frailty using the Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS), record falls and document muscle/joint pain. We will test the feasibility of collection of data to identify therapy resources required for delivery of the intervention.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The HOPE trial will explore and evaluate a home-based exercise intervention for frail older people. Although previous RCTs have used operationalised, non-validated methods of measuring frailty, the HOPE trial is, to our knowledge, the first RCT of an exercise intervention for frail older people that includes a validated method of frailty assessment at baseline.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ISRCTN: ISRCTN57066881.
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of Elderly Care & Rehabilitation, University of Leeds, Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Duckworth Lane, Bradford BD9 6RJ, UK. andrewpaulclegg@yahoo.co.uk
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Clegg
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barber
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Forster
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iliffe
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology; D004739:England; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D016330:Frail Elderly; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D057187:Independent Living; D053580:Muscle Strength; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011788:Quality of Life; D012107:Research Design; D055948:Sarcopenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome