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Clinical Research Protocol|Volume 17, Issue 5|pp 1328—1339

Update on the detection of frailty in older adults: a multicenter cohort machine learning-based study protocol

Samuel Fernández-Carnero1,2, Oliver Martínez-Pozas2,3, Daniel Pecos-Martín1, Armando Pardo-Gómez4, Juan Nicolás Cuenca-Zaldívar1,2,5,6, Eleuterio A. Sánchez-Romero2,3,5,7
  • 1Departamento de Fisioterapia, Universidad de Alcalá, Facultad de Enfermería y Fisioterapia, Grupo de Investigación en Fisioterapia y Dolor, Alcalá de Henares 28801, Spain
  • 2Interdisciplinary Research Group on Musculoskeletal Disorders, Madrid 28014, Spain
  • 3Physiotherapy and Orofacial Pain Working Group, Sociedad Española de Disfunción Craneomandibular y Dolor Orofacial (SEDCYDO), Madrid 28009, Spain
  • 4Geriatrics Service, Puerta de Hierro Hospital, Majadahonda 28222, Spain
  • 5Research Group in Nursing and Health Care, Puerta de Hierro Health Research Institute-Segovia de Arana (IDIPHISA), Majadahonda 28222, Spain
  • 6Physical Therapy Unit, Primary Health Care Center “El Abajón”, Las Rozas de Madrid 28231, Spain
  • 7Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL 33965, USA
Received: December 9, 2024Accepted: May 1, 2025Published: May 21, 2025
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206254

Copyright: © 2025 Fernández-Carnero et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Background: This study aims to investigate the relationship between muscle activation variables assessed via ultrasound and the comprehensive assessment of geriatric patients, as well as to analyze ultrasound images to determine their correlation with morbimortality factors in frail patients.

Methods: The present cohort study will be conducted in 500 older adults diagnosed with frailty. A multicenter study will be conducted among the day care centers and nursing homes. This will be achieved through the evaluation of frail older adults via instrumental and functional tests, along with specific ultrasound images to study sarcopenia and nutrition, followed by a detailed analysis of the correlation between all collected variables.

Discussion: This study aims to investigate the correlation between ultrasound-assessed muscle activation variables and the overall health of geriatric patients. It addresses the limitations of previous research by including a large sample size of 500 patients and measuring various muscle parameters beyond thickness. Additionally, it aims to analyze ultrasound images to identify markers associated with higher risk of complications in frail patients. The study involves frail older adults undergoing functional tests and specific ultrasound examinations. A comprehensive analysis of functional, ultrasound, and nutritional variables will be conducted to understand their correlation with overall health and risk of complications in frail older patients.

Trial registration: The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro, Madrid, Spain (Act nº 18/2023). In addition, the study was registered with https://clinicaltrials.gov/ (NCT06218121).