SARCOFALLS study v 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Sarcopenia in an older population at high risk of falls
IRAS ID
173054
Contact name
Tahir Masud
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NUH NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 1 days
Research summary
This is primarily a study into the prevalence of Sarcopenia in a fallers population referred to secondary care falls services to inform future research on this condition.
Criteria for identifying Sarcopenia are low muscle mass and function (Cruz-Jentoft et al., 2010). Sarcopenia has been linked to reduced physical ability, quality of life and increased mortality (Cruz-Jentoft et al., 2010). A systematic review into the prevalence of and interventions for Sarcopenia (Crutz-Jentoft et al., 2014) stated that more well designed studies with a large enough sample size to identify prevalence and risk factors for Sarcopenia in well-defined populations are needed.Low muscle power is a risk factor for falls and has been shown to increase the risk of falls by more than four times (Rubenstein and Josephson 2006). However the prevalence of Sarcopenia in a falls population is not known. As treatments for Sarcopenia are being developed such as exercise, essential amino acids and protein supplements it is important to know the prevalence of Sarcopenia in this population.
The results of this study will be used to inform the design of a future feasibility study and grant application which will investigate the use of Leucine plus an exercise programme versus the exercise programme alone in a population at high risk of falls.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EM/0175
Date of REC Opinion
18 Jun 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion