An interventional study of Eccentric exercise intervention in Ageing Well, sponsored by The University of Northampton. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United Kingdom. Open to participants aged 65 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-04.
Sponsored by The University of Northampton · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a 12-month eccentric-biased strengthening programme in community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years and older. The main questions it aims to answer are:
Can an eccentric-biased strengthening programme be feasibly delivered to community-dwelling older adults in a community setting? Does participation in the programme improve functional mobility, lower-limb strength, falls self-efficacy, and health-related quality of life?
Participants will:
Attend a 12-month supervised eccentric-biased strengthening programme delivered in a community setting.
Complete assessments of functional mobility, lower-limb strength, falls self-efficacy, and health-related quality of life before and after the intervention.
Provide information regarding their experience of participating in the programme to evaluate its acceptability.
Age-related declines in muscle strength, power, and physical function contribute to reduced mobility, loss of independence, and an increased risk of falls among older adults. Resistance exercise is recommended to mitigate these declines; however, conventional exercise programmes may be limited by physical capacity, fatigue, or accessibility. Eccentric muscle actions allow greater force production at a lower metabolic cost and may therefore represent an effective and practical training modality for older adults.
This study will evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a community-based eccentric-biased strengthening programme delivered to community-dwelling older adults. Participants will be recruited through community organisations and complete a 12-month supervised exercise intervention designed to improve lower-limb strength and functional performance.
Feasibility will be evaluated through recruitment, retention, attendance, adherence, and adverse event monitoring. Acceptability will be assessed through participant feedback and experiences of programme participation. Preliminary effectiveness will be explored through changes in measures of physical function, falls-related self-efficacy, and health-related quality of life collected before and after the intervention.
The findings will provide evidence regarding the practicality of delivering an eccentric-biased strengthening programme within a community setting and will inform the design of future adequately powered controlled studies investigating the effectiveness of eccentric exercise interventions in older adults.
1,284 studies on the registry are indexed under Frailty; 452 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 30 is below the median of 81 across 767 interventional studies indexed under Frailty.
Browse Frailty studies →The University of Northampton is the lead sponsor of 5 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.
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Age ≥ 65 years Ambulant with or without a walking aid
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Eccentric exercise programme
Other: Eccentric exercise intervention
Participants will undertake a 12-month supervised eccentric-biased strengthening programme delivered in a community setting, with the option of performing this at home. The intervention will consist of 6x 1-minute progressive lower-limb strengthening exercises emphasising the eccentric phase of movement, including functional tasks relevant to activities of daily living. Exercise difficulty will be progressively increased throughout the programme according to participant performance and tolerance. Community sessions will be led by staff at the community setting who will have been educated and trained by developers of the exercise programme in a group-based format. The intervention is designed to improve lower-limb strength, mobility, balance confidence, and physical function in community-dwelling older adults.
Feasibility of Intervention Recruitment
Feasibility of recruitment will be assessed through participant recruitment capacity, calculated as the number of participants enrolled on the study relative to total number of people invited to take part.
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Feasibility of Intervention Delivery
Feasibility of delivery will be assessed through participant partiicpant adherence to the intervention, calculated as the number of sessions attended relative to the total number of sessions presrcibed.
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Timed Up and Go Test
Timed Up and Go test wil require participants to rise from a chair, walk three metres, turn around, return to the chair, and sit down. The time taken to complete the test will be recorded in seconds.
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Sit-to-stand Test
Lower-limb strength will be assessed using the Five Times Sit-to-Stand test. Participants will be asked to stand up and sit down five times as quickly as possible from a standard chair without using their arms for assistance. Time to completion will be recorded in seconds.
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Falls Efficacy Scale International
The Falls Efficacy Scale International (FES-I) will be used to assess the fear of falling. The FES-I is a validated self-report questionnaire that evaluates an individual's concern about falling during a range of everyday activities. Higher scores indicate greater concern about falling.
Time frame: Up to 12 months
EuroQol Five-Dimension Five-Level Questionnaire
Health-related quality of life will be assessed using the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire. The instrument evaluates mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression, alongside a self-rated health visual analogue scale.
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Intervention Acceptability
Participant acceptability of the eccentric-biased strengthening programme will be assessed through post-intervention feedback. Information regarding participant satisfaction, perceived benefits, barriers to participation, and willingness to continue exercise following programme completion will be collected.
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Plan to share: Yes — De-identified individual participant data for all primary and secondary outcome measures reported in study publications will be made available. This includes baseline and post-intervention values for TUG, 5×STS, Short FES-I, EQ-5D-5L, and intervention adherence metrics. No personally identifiable information will be shared.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan
Time frame: IPD will be available indefinitely as it will be stored on a public resposiotory (PURE).
Access criteria: Public
Data sharing details ↗ · www.elsevier.com
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Start is estimated for Nov 2026; primary completion for Jun 2027, 7 months later.
Of 513 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Frailty, half reached primary completion within 22 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 11 and three quarters within 39. This study's planned 7 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 517 studies reached it within 22 months; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 39.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Oct 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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