The validation of an online platform for older adults to monitor and train their physical and mental capacity and develop proper eating habits

Demographic ageing is a global trend. In the European Union, the number of
people aged 65+ will almost double over the next 50 years, from 85 million in
2008 to 151 million in 2060. Among older adults, frailty is highly prevalent
and constitutes a major health problem. Frail individuals are vulnerable and at
high risk of adverse health outcome. They have functional impairments which
often results in falls, immobility and confusion. People affected by frailty
make the most use of community resources, hospitals and long-term care
institutions. Early screening for risk on frailty and functional decline and
training of those who start to deploy frail conditions is key to successful
prevention. From this perspective the European PERSSILAA-project develops and
validates a new service model to screen for and prevent frailty in community
dwelling older adults.

The objective of this study is to investigate the user satisfaction, use,
effectiveness and economic outcomes of the PERSSILAA platform for older adults
suffering from functional decline in the physical and/or cognitive domain
and/or suffering from malnutrition.

This study is a cohort multiple Randomized Controlled Trail (cmRCT). A
multidimensional screening tool was used to detect community dwelling adults
suffering from functional decline in the physical and/or cognitive domain
and/or suffering from malnutrition. Selected people were asked to participate
in a research cohort and fixed numbers of participants will be randomly
assigned to the intervention group each time a new service module of the
PERSSILAA-platform is ready for validation.

The PERSSILAA platform is an online platform which gives older adults and
healthcare professionals access to various modules: a screening module,
training modules and a monitoring module. The screening module contains
several questionnaires for an annual screening for frailty and functional
decline in the physical, cognitive and nutrition domains. The training modules
give older adults access to physical and cognitive training programs and a
healthy nutrition website. These training modules are developed as
self-management modules. The platform stimulates older adults to use the
program providing automated feedback on the older adults* progression and
through the incorporation of gamification elements. The monitoring module gives
older adults insights in their progression, first by completing questionnaires
and in later by unobtrusive monitoring. In the following years various versions
of the PERSSILAA platform will be released. The third version of the PERSSILAA
platform contains the screening module, a training module with a physical and
cognitive training program and an informative nutritional website and a
monitoring module.

The risks associated with participation are estimated to be low because the
participants will be trained to use the platform and the content is based on
evidence based medicine and was developed in consultation with various
healthcare professionals.
Participants will be asked to fill in questionnaires and to invest time to
learn to operate the PERSSILAA platform. This burden and the potential risks
outweigh the potential benefits attained by training their cognitive and
physical capacity and by learning about healthy nutrition