Abstracts of the 21st Congress of the European Geriatric Medicine Society, Reykjavik, Iceland, September 24–26, 2025
Year: 2025
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: Background: Frailty is a multicomponent, age-associated syndrome, with mobility at its core. As many RCTs in frail older adults target mobility, accurate quantification of mobility is essential to establish the efficacy of interventions. This review aims to describe and assess the tools currently used to capture mobility in RCTs. Methods: Four electronic databases were systematically searched (MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED, PsychInfo) up to January 5th, 2024. Studies were included if they were an RCT, captured mobility as an outcome measure, population was aged ≥ 65 years, identified as frail or prefrail using a validated frailty instrument. A risk of bias analysis was conducted using the RoB2 tool. Results: After identifying 4056 papers, removing duplicates and performing screening, 65 studies were included. The most common intervention and frailty tool were exercise (55/65) and the phenotypic model of frailty (39/65), respectively. Performance based tools were most common (60/65) specifically Short Physical Performance Battery, gait speed, and Timed Up and Go (33, 27 and, 21 studies, respectively). Three studies used technology in a laboratory environment. Discussion: Mobility is usually evaluated as a single faceted concept in RCTs, only considering the physical domain, often at a single time point. This fails to reflect the multifaceted nature of mobility that encompasses cognitive, psychosocial, physical, environmental, and financial domains. In future, technology might address some of these deficits but further work is required before this is deployed routinely in trials to accurately evaluate the efficacy of novel interventions.
Source: European Geriatric Medicine
Language: English
Topic: Frailty in Older Adults
Subfield: Geriatrics and Gerontology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,390
OpenAlex ID: W4416644555