The main aim of the project is to evaluate in older people the effectiveness of personalized preventive interventions based on the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) in the primary care setting and to explore biological process in Non-Communicable Disases (NCDs).
The study involves 1216 subjects enrolled by General Practitioners (GPs) in four different Italian Areas.
The GPs involved will be randomised to clusters in a 1:1 ratio, therefore one group of GPs will enrol patients for the Intervention Group and a second group of GPs will include patients for the Control Group.
The sample size:
A recent Cochrane systematic review reports a significant reduction in the risk of unplanned hospitalisation in community-dwelling elderly persons treated with VMD compared to standard clinical practice (RR= 0.83; CI 95%: 0.70-0.99). Thus, assuming an incidence of unplanned hospitalisations in one year of 38.8% in the group receiving PPP compared to 47.7% in the group randomised to standard care and assuming a power of 80% and a type I error of 5%, a total of 972 participants will be enrolled. Furthermore, assuming a drop-out rate of 20% over the 1-year follow-up period, the final sample will be 1216 participants, 608 in each group
608 subjects will be involved in the intervention group: they will receive the Personalized Prevention Program (PPP) and a saliva sample will be collected.
608 subjects will be involved in the control group according to the normal clinical practice.
Both groups will be contacted at 6 and 12 months after the baseline for the follow-up.
Statistical analyses:
Baseline characteristics will be compared between the group receiving the CGA-based PPP intervention and the control group. Continuous variables will be compared using the t-Student test and categorical variables using the Chi-square test. The cumulative probability of the primary and secondary outcome will be estimated by Kaplan-Meier curve, using the log-rank test to assess differences between the two groups. To assess the risk associated with the primary outcome (rate of unplanned hospitalisation at 12 months) in subjects in the intervention group compared to subjects in standard care, the Hazard Ratio (HR) will be estimated by fitting a Cox model, after testing for proportional hazards. Similarly, the risk of secondary outcomes will be estimated.
