Impact of multicomponent exercise and nutritional supplement interventions for improving physical frailty in community-dwelling older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy of both multicomponent exercise and nutritional interventions on frailty by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine changes in frailty incidence.

Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Eligible criteria: The included studies were limited to original controlled trials focused on frailty interventions in older adults aged 65 years and over. The studies involved only participants with specific diseases, and those recovering from surgery or being hospitalized were excluded.

Information sources: A systematic search was performed on three databases: PUBMED, EMBASE, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health, with the latest search in October 2024. Three authors independently extracted the data using a standardized data collection form. Relative risks were used as a summary measure. Pooled-effect estimates of each outcome were calculated by the random-effects meta-analysis.

Results: After searching three databases, 5327 records were identified. After removing duplicates and screening the titles and abstracts, 19 multicomponent exercise studies and 7 nutritional intervention studies were eligible. In a pooled analysis of 18 multicomponent exercise RCTs, including a total of 3457 older adults, the multicomponent exercises showed a clinically significant reduction in frailty risk by relative change 55% times (95% CI 45% to 67%, p value < 0.001). The subgroup analysis of combinations of macronutrients and micronutrients also demonstrated statistically significant decrease in frailty risk by relative change 28% times (95% CI 11% to 72%, p value = 0.008).

Conclusion: Multicomponent exercises can effectively improve physical frailty, regardless of the duration and types of the activities, whereas the efficacy of nutritional supplements remains unclear. Personalized multicomponent approaches that incorporate both exercises and nutritional supplements have promised to enhance effectiveness in reducing frailty, thus warranting further investigation.

Trial registration: The study was registered on 12 September 2022, under PROSPERO registration number CRD42022357357.