Samenvatting

Purpose: With the ageing population, there is an increasing demand for strategies to optimise muscle mass, strength and physical performance in community dwelling older adults. We designed a new innovative e-health intervention "VITAMIN" to improve physical performance in older adults. The blended home-based exercise intervention contains digital support to improve personalised coaching as well as dietary protein counselling. This study evaluates the 6 months effectiveness of the intervention.  Methods: The cluster RCT included 245 community dwelling older adults (age = 55y) randomised to control, exercise, and exercise+dietary protein counselling group. Data was collected at baseline and after 6 months of intervention. The primary outcome was the modified Physical Performance test (mPPT) with an emphasis on daily functioning. Secondary measures were gait speed (GS; m/s), physical activity level (PAL), protein intake (g/kg/d), appendicular skeletal muscle mass by DXA (ASMM; kg), hand grip strength (HGS; kg). For statistical analysis SPSSv24.0 was used. A mixed models analysis was performed, with group, time and group*time interaction as fixed factors, subject and cluster as random factors, and additional posthoc Bonferroni test.  Results: Mean age of the 224 evaluated participants was 72.0±smn;6.5y, 71% were females and 44% low educated. No significant intervention effect was found for mPPT (p=.889). Secondary outcomes showed a significant intervention effect: GS (p=.002), PAL (p=.014), protein intake (p