title: Therapeutic interventions for frail elderly patients: part I. Published randomized trials.
abstract: The body of literature for frailty as a prognostic marker continues to grow, yet the evidence for frailty as a therapeutic target is less well defined. In the setting of cardiovascular disease, the prevalence of frailty is elevated and its impact on mortality and major morbidity is substantial. Therapeutic interventions aimed at improving frailty may impart gains in functional status and survival. Randomized clinical trials that tested one or more therapeutic interventions in a population of frail older adults were reviewed. The interventions studied were exercise training in 13 trials, nutritional supplementation in 4 trials, combined exercise plus nutritional supplementation in 7 trials, pharmaceutical agents in 8 trials, multi-dimensional programs in 5 trials, and home-based services in 1 trial. The main findings of these trials are explored along with a discussion of their relative merits and limitations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Division of Cardiology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Lior
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bibas
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Division of Cardiology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Levi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bendayan
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mullie
authors.affiliation: Section of Geriatric Cardiology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; Geratric Research Education and Clinical Center, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Forman
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Divisions of Cardiology and Clinical Epidemiology, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada. Electronic address: jonathan.afilalo@mcgill.ca.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Afilalo
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D016330:Frail Elderly; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
keywords: Frailty; Randomized clinical trials; Sarcopenia