Age Self Care-Resilience, a medical group visit program targeting pre-frailty: A mixed methods pilot clinical trial

Pre-frailty is highly prevalent and multimodal lifestyle interventions are effective for preventing transition to frailty. However, little is known about the potential for medical group visits (MGV) to prevent frailty progression.

To assess the feasibility and acceptability of the MGV Age Self Care-Resilience.

Single-arm mixed methods pilot clinical trial.

Virtual MGV delivered in an ambulatory setting at a U.S. academic medical center.

Community-dwelling older adults (n = 11; age 65+) with pre- to mild frailty.

Age Self Care-Resilience, an 8-week virtual MGV (90-minute sessions once per week) with sessions focused on physical activity, nutrition, social engagement, mind-body practice, and home environment modification.

Primary outcomes were feasibility of recruitment, attendance, satisfaction, and feasibility of study measurements, collected via quantitative and qualitative approaches. Exploratory outcomes included frailty, psychosocial health, and physical function.

A priori feasibility criteria were met for recruitment, with 15 (48 %) of those screened (31) meeting eligibility criteria, 11 (35 %) enrolling (mean age 74.5 yrs), and recruitment completed in less than one month. The nine participants who completed the study attended a mean of 7.2 of 8 sessions and completed 100 % of baseline and follow-up study measures; participants completed 58 % of the home practice log. Themes from participant interviews included: (1) mixed reactions to the recruitment term "pre-frailty;" (2) finding group participation as meaningful and empowering; and (3) perception that the program positively changed attitudes and lifestyle behaviors.

Age Self Care-Resilience is feasible and acceptable to pre- to mildly frail older adults. Next steps include evaluating the efficacy of Age Self Care-Resilience for preventing frailty progression with a fully powered randomized controlled trial.