A digitally supported home-based exercise training program and dietary protein intervention for community dwelling older adults: protocol of the cluster randomised controlled VITAMIN trial

BACKGROUND: Increased physical activity and dietary protein intake are promising interventions to prevent or treat the age-related decline in physical performance in older adults. There are well-controlled exercise as well as dietary intervention studies that show beneficial effects on physical performance in older adults. In practice, however, weekly group based exercise or nutritional programs may not be as effective. To optimise these exercise programs for community dwelling older adults, a digitally supported and personalised home-based exercise training program has been designed aiming to improve physical performance in older adults. In addition, a protein intervention in combination with the training program may further improve physical performance in older adults. METHODS: The VITAMIN study will be a cluster randomised controlled trial with three parallel arms. In total, 240 community dwelling older adults (≥ 55 years) participating in weekly group exercise are randomly allocated into: 1) regular weekly exercise program (Control group, n = 80), 2) digitally supported personalised home-based exercise training program group (VITA group, n = 80) and 3) digitally supported personalised home-based exercise training program group plus dietary protein counselling (VITA-Pro group, n = 80). The VITAMIN study aims to evaluate effectiveness of the digitally supported personalised home-based exercise training program as well as the additional value of dietary protein on physical performance after 6 months. In addition, a 12 month follow-up measurement will assess the retaining effect of the interventions. Primary outcome is physical performance measured by the Modified Physical Performance Test (M-PPT) and relevant secondary and observational outcomes include habitual physical activity and dietary intake, body composition, cognitive performance, quality of life, compliance and tablet usage. Data will be analysed by Linear Mixed Models. DISCUSSION: To our knowledge, the VITAMIN study is the first study that investigates the impact of home-based exercise, protein intake as well as use of persuasive technology in the population of community dwelling older adults. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NL56094.029.16 / NTR ( TC = 5888 ; registered 03-06-2016).