Evaluation of the implementation of a multicomponent, non-pharmacological intervention in elderly patients for the treatment of sarcopenia in the city of Zamora.

From the International Centre on Ageing, CENIE, which has been promoted since 2017, together with other prestigious institutions, the General Foundation of the University of Salamanca, we wish to contribute to the implementation of projects and programmes that focus their proposals on longevity. 

In this sense, in the socio-demographic context that long-lived societies represent, the initiative "Together we give more life to Zamora", makes the city of Zamora the protagonist of a pioneering and innovative set of 10 applied research projects that will make it a national and international reference in the leadership that involves the identification of a model of quality of life in the framework of an inclusive, economically sustainable and inclusive society, especially in terms of social rights.

A few months ago, we carried out the research "The senior public in a cultural offer for all", corresponding to the Culture Area, and which served to highlight the need to promote intergenerational relations and avoid social segmentation, in origin, when we address leisure and cultural offers.

We are also developing the research: Implementation of a system for the promotion of healthy ageing in the elderly population, under the direction and scientific coordination of the CTIC Foundation, which promotes a better quality of life through the learning and maintenance of healthy habits, where physical activity plays a particularly relevant role.

The demographic transition has become a longevity transition, as the increase in life expectancy is increasingly taking place in recent years. In high-income countries, most of the increase in life expectancy is now occurring in the years after 80. If society is adapting to a change in the number of older people, it must also adapt to the fact that most children born today in wealthier nations can expect to live into their ninth decade, if not longer. 

This longevity transition not only represents a new stage of demographic transition, but also creates a new epidemiological transition. Longer lives mean that the fight against a wide range of age-related diseases (such as cancer, dementia, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, etc.) will increasingly dominate research and medical systems.

More fundamentally, it also represents a new challenge for humanity. For most of human history, it has been expected that only a minority would reach old age. This is no longer the case, however, and so a new human imperative has been created: the importance of ageing well. This is not a task that begins when people grow old, but requires changes throughout life. If an ageing society is to meet the needs and challenges of an increasing proportion of older people, longevity requires a focus on the whole of life, not just the end of life. 

The consequence is that this longevity transition creates a new challenge for individuals and society. Increases in life expectancy must be accompanied by improvements in healthy life expectancy.

Aumentar la esperanza de vida saludable requiere un cambio importante hacia la salud preventiva. A medida que la sociedad envejece, la carga de la enfermedad se desplaza hacia las enfermedades crónicas y no infecciosas, lo que hace que la intervención sea costosa y menos eficaz. Es mucho mejor centrarse en la prevención. Esto, a su vez, requerirá importantes reasignaciones de los presupuestos sanitarios existentes.

In the new imperative of ageing well, healthy ageing takes precedence. In particular, it is of paramount importance to match the length of health with the length of life. To achieve this, governments will need to raise the importance of healthy life expectancy as a goal. With an increasing proportion of the population above working age, an ageing society requires different measures of well-being beyond GDP. The more governments succeed in increasing healthy life expectancy, the more the economy will benefit in terms of reduced health costs and longer careers. Focusing on measures of healthy life expectancy will also require greater attention to reducing health inequalities.

In line with these reflections, the General Foundation of the University of Salamanca, through the International Centre on Ageing (CENIE), in the framework of the Programme for a Longer Society, co-funded by the INTERREG V-A Cooperation Programme, Spain-Portugal, POCTEP, 2014-2020, of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), wants to encourage and promote the implementation of community programmes to prevent health in a long-lived society, especially of its older adult members.

To this end, a pragmatic trial has been designed, entitled: Evaluation of the implementation of a multicomponent, non-pharmacological intervention in elderly patients for the treatment of sarcopenia in the city of Zamora, and aims to evaluate the effectiveness of different recruitment methods in older people, as well as the effectiveness of a multicomponent, non-pharmacological intervention for the treatment of sarcopenia that is effective in improving muscle mass and physical performance in patients over 65 years of age.

This research will be directed and coordinated by the Foundation for Biomedical Research of the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital, with the collaboration of the Faculty of Nursing and Physiotherapy and the School of Nursing of Zamora, both centres of the University of Salamanca.

The Foundation for Biomedical Research of the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital has created a common space in which to share ideas, projects and also researchers and teams, to ensure the convergence of scientific progress towards the needs of our society.

It is made up of 39 research groups and more than 1300 people dedicated to biomedical science with a translational vocation. With the mission of being a space dedicated to biomedical research of excellence, aimed at generating useful knowledge for the identification and treatment of current or potential diseases and therefore with a marked translational character in the permanent search for impact on society and with the vocation of becoming a national and international reference, applying a philosophy of quality and continuous improvement in all its actions.

It has the vision of leading basic, clinical and translational scientific research, being a reliable reference for society, for the scientific community and for public and private institutions at national and international level.

It seeks to contribute significantly to the generation of new knowledge, to its application to healthcare practice and the business environment and to the training of new researchers in biomedicine.

If you are interested in participating you can find all the information on how to do so in this link.

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LEAD RESEARCHER

Alfonso Cruz-Jentoft

He is a geriatrician who chairs the Geriatrics Service of the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital and senior researcher and leader of the geriatric research group of the local research institute (IRYCIS). He is professor of Geriatric Medicine at the European University of Madrid, president of the Spanish Council of Geriatric Medicine, past president of the European Society of Geriatric Medicine (EuGMS). 

He is also editor-in-chief of European Geriatric Medicine, the official journal of EuGMS, chairman of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) and member of the WHO Clinical Consortium on Healthy Aging. 

He has a strong research record in the definition of sarcopenia and its links to frailty, geriatric nutrition, non-pharmacological interventions for geriatric syndromes, Alzheimer's disease and appropriate use of medications in the elderly. 

His current h-index is 44. He has been the principal investigator in several major European funded projects in this field (i.e. SPRINTT- Sarcopenia and physical frailty in older people: multicomponent treatment strategies; SENATOR- Development and clinical trials of a new software engine for the assessment and optimisation of pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapy in older people; MPI-AGE: use of multidimensional prognostic indices (MPI) to improve the cost-effectiveness of interventions in multimorbid frail older people; or SO-NUTS: prevention of obesity, sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity in retirement: personalised digital interventions for healthy nutrition and physical activity for older people; SO-NUTS: prevention of obesity, sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity in retirement: personalised digital interventions for healthy nutrition and physical activity for older people.

LEAD RESEARCHER

Elisabet Sánchez García

Degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Salamanca (1996-2002). Specialist in Geriatrics via MIR, completing her residency at the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital (2003-2007). She obtained the Rio Hortega grant for specialists in the Post Specialised Health Training period CM07/00202 from the Carlos III Health Institute. (2007-2009). She obtained the postgraduate diploma "Statistics and methodology of research in Health Sciences Methodology of research in Health Sciences", taught by the Laboratori d'Estadística Aplicada i de Modelització of the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. (2008-2010). She holds a PhD in Geriatrics from the Complutense University of Madrid since 2016. 

She currently works as a specialist in Geriatrics at Hospital General Universitario Ramón y Cajal, since 10 March 2014, where she has been a tutor for residents since 2017, and is a member of the nutrition committee and the hospital's dysphagia working group. She is a member of the editorial committee of the Spanish Journal of Geriatrics and Gerontology and is a member of the European Society of Geriatrics and the Spanish Society of Geriatrics, belonging to the nutrition interest group of this entity. 

She has been part of the research team of the SPRINTT study (Sarcopenia and physical frailty in older people: multi-component treatment strategies (115621-3) IMI-JU-9-2013) a large international multicentre clinical trial on nutrition and exercise to improve frailty and sarcopenia and prevent disability.) She is author of scientific articles published in national and international journals.