The PREPARE Trial: Exercise Before Surgery to Improve Recovery in Older People With Frailty

  • STATUS
    Recruiting
  • participants needed
    750
  • sponsor
    Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Updated on 19 February 2024

Summary

This study evaluates whether participating in a home-based exercise program leads to lower levels of complication rates and patient-reported disability after surgery. Half of the participants will be randomized into the exercise group, while the other half will be randomized into the control group.

Description

Background: Four out of ten older people having surgery live with frailty, leaving them vulnerable to adverse outcomes due to accumulation of age- and disease-related deficits. An increasing number of people with frailty require surgery. Frailty is associated with a >2-fold increase in complications and new patient-reported disability; absolute rates are >50% and 20% respectively; physical and physiologic deficits are particularly implicated. Mortality, costs and institutionalization after surgery are also significantly associated with frailty.

Despite frailty's strong association with adverse outcomes, few perioperative trials include older people with frailty. Exercise therapy may improve function and decrease complications for other people with frailty by addressing physical and physiologic deficits. However, existing trials are small (median n=54) and single center. Most interventions have been resource-intensive, requiring attendance at hospital-based sessions, which may limit access to many who could benefit. Patient-reported outcomes are also lacking. Therefore, a multicenter trial of home-based exercise therapy before surgery for older people with frailty, powered to address patient-reported outcomes, is needed. Our trial will address these knowledge gaps by testing the effectiveness of home-based preoperative exercise (exercise prehabilitation) in decreasing patient-reported disability and postoperative complications in older people with frailty having major surgery.

Research aims: Estimate the effectiveness of exercise prehabilitation on:

  • Co-primary outcomes: patient-reported disability 30-days after surgery and in-hospital complications
  • Secondary outcomes: patient-centered (discharge home, survival, 30, 90 and one-year disability scores, quality of life, function) and system-relevant (length of stay, admissions)
  • Health economic outcomes: costs, cost-effectiveness
    Methods

Design, setting and participants: Parallel-arm multicenter randomized controlled trial at 14 Canadian hospitals. People => 60 years old with frailty (Clinical Frailty Scale score of 4/9) having major elective non-cardiac surgery (vascular, intrathoracic, intraabdominal, pelvic, ENT) with expected length of stay of => 2 days will be included.

Intervention: Home-based exercise program with demonstrated efficacy, feasibility and acceptability tailored for people with frailty.

Outcomes and sample size: Co-primary outcomes are patient-reported disability 30 days after surgery (validated WHODAS tool) and prospectively collected in-hospital complications (validated POMS tool). 750 participants (375/arm) will provide 98% power for disability (control mean score 35 (SD 25; MID=8)) and 90% power for complications (55% complication rate (25% relative risk reduction)) (=0.025; 2 pair-wise comparisons).

Expertise: Our team features multidisciplinary clinical and methodological experts, nationally representative knowledge users and patient representatives.

Expected outcomes: Older people with frailty are a growing and vulnerable segment of the surgical population and are under-represented in existing studies. Exercise prehabilitation is a high-priority research question which may be most relevant to people with frailty given their physical and physiologic vulnerabilities. This study, featuring patient-reported outcomes and an integrated knowledge translation approach will produce generalizable findings directly relevant to patients, families, caregivers, and knowledge users.

Details
Condition Frailty, Surgery--Complications, Disability Physical
Age 60-100 years
Treatment Exercise Group
Clinical Study IdentifierNCT04221295
SponsorOttawa Hospital Research Institute
Last Modified on19 February 2024

Eligibility

Yes No Not Sure

Inclusion Criteria

years of age or older
Elective surgery with expected post-surgery stay of 2 days or more
Frailty present (Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) score of 4/9 or greater)
Surgery date between 3 and 12 weeks from enrollment

Exclusion Criteria

Inability to communicate in English or in French
Unreachable by telephone
Palliative surgery
Cardiac, neurological or orthopedic procedures
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