Eccentric Exercise in Community-dwelling Older Adults (HEX:AGEUK)

October 29, 2026 updated by: Brett Baxter, The University of Northampton

The Effects of an Eccentric-biased Strengthening Programme Delivered to Community-dwelling Older Adults"

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.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

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.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

30

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United Kingdom
    • Northamptonshire
      • Northampton, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom, NN1 5PH
        • University of Northampton

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

65 years and older (Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Age ≥ 65 years Ambulant with or without a walking aid

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Inability to provide informed consent, assessed using the Mental Capacity Act two-stage assessment

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention

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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Feasibility of Intervention Recruitment
Time Frame: Up to 12 months

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.
Up to 12 months
Feasibility of Intervention Delivery
Time Frame: Up to 12 months

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.
Up to 12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Timed Up and Go Test
Time Frame: Up to 12 months

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.
Up to 12 months
Sit-to-stand Test
Time Frame: Up to 12 months

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.
Up to 12 months
Falls Efficacy Scale International
Time Frame: Up to 12 months

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.
Up to 12 months
EuroQol Five-Dimension Five-Level Questionnaire
Time Frame: Up to 12 months

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.
Up to 12 months
Intervention Acceptability
Time Frame: Up to 12 months

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.
Up to 12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

The University of Northampton

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Brett A. Baxter, PhD, University of Northampton

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

November 23, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 30, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

July 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 22, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 29, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

November 4, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 4, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 29, 2026

Last Verified

October 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • FHSHEA000518

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

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.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

IPD will be available indefinitely as it will be stored on a public resposiotory (PURE).

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Public

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP

Study Data/Documents

  1. Individual Participant Data Set

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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