AGE SELF CARE: Promoting Healthy Aging Through a Group Visit Program

Study Design: pilot study

Setting: BWH Osher Clinical Center for Integrative Medicine, or "OCC", is a collaboration between BWH and Harvard Medical School (HMS), focused on enhancing human health, resilience, and quality of life through translational research, clinical practice, and education in integrative medicine. The OCC is comprised of an interdisciplinary team of physicians, chiropractors, acupuncturists, massage therapists, coaches, nutritionists, craniosacral therapists, and other practitioners who treat patients with a variety of conditions. Patients across New England regularly access the OCC through self-referral or referral from primary care or subspecialty practices.

Participants: Community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and older who are pre-frail (based on FRAIL) during the initial study visit (n=12).

Intervention: AGE SELF CARE consists of 8 weekly 90-minute virtual group visits, with approximately 12 participants in each group. Sessions focus on chronic disease management; healthy lifestyle education, including nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, and socialization; home adaptation to optimize the home environment for usability and safety with aging; and anticipatory guidance. Educational materials include a library of handouts and pre-recorded videos from interdisciplinary team members about a topic. The group applies learning to their own lives, develops personal goals, and reports back about brief home activities or practices.

Sessions will be modified and targeted toward frailty prevention according to existing data and published guidelines. For example, the Mediterranean diet will be discussed as a nutritional approach that can reduce frailty progression. Physical activity guidelines will focus on resistance training to simulate daily activities, power training, balance exercise, and mind-body movement. Finally, sessions will include information on home safety modification and polypharmacy.

Inclusion criteria

• Community-dwelling adults age 65+.
• Pre-frail (1-2 points on FRAIL scale) during pre-screening.
• Agree to participate and commit to all study procedures.
• Able to speak English.
• Access to and ability to use a smartphone, tablet, or computer and broadband internet.

Exclusion criteria

• Younger than age 65.
• Robust (0 points) or frail (3+ points) on FRAIL scale during phone screening.
• Established diagnosis of dementia.
• Untreated psychiatric symptoms affecting group participation.
• Hearing or visual impairment affecting participation in a virtual program.