Dietary Behaviour Change Intervention Among Older People With Sarcopenic Obesity

Dietary Behaviour Change Intervention on Managing Sarcopenic Obesity in Community-dwelling Older People: a Feasibility and Pilot Study

The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary effects of dietary behavior change intervention on the management of sarcopenic obesity (SO) among older people in the community.

The feasibility and preliminary effects of the intervention will be tested using a two-armed pilot randomized controlled trial among older people (N=60) with SO in the community in Nanjing, China. Finally, 10 participants will be invited to join a semi-structured interview to explore their perceptions about the whole intervention process.

It is hypothesized that the experimental group will have a greater improvement in the body composition, muscle strength and physical function compared to the control group after receiving the 15-week dietary behavior change intervention.

The pilot study is a single-blind, two-arm randomized controlled trial. A total of 60 subjects (60 years old or more) are planned to be recruited. The subjects will be randomly divided into 2 groups witht a ratio of 1:1. One is the experimental group and the other is the control group.

The experimental group will receive 15 weeks of dietary intervention, including 6 face-to-face meetings and weekly telephone call. Each meeting lasts for 1 hour. The participants in the experimental group are required to control of calorie intake (decrease energy intake by 12%) and increase protein intake (1.2-1.5 g/body weight kg/day), and take dietary diary.

The control group will not receive any dietary interventions. They will only receive regular contacts with a similar frequency as the experimental group. The content of the conversations will not involve any topics related to SO.

After the intervention, 10-15 people from the experimental group will be randomly selected to receive semi-structured individual interview, which will last around 1 hour. The researcher plan to understand their feelings about participating in the study.

Inclusion Criteria:

• community-dwelling older people aged 60 years old or above;
• handgrip strength < 28 kg for men and < 18 kg for women;
• BMI ≥ 28% or waist circumference ≥ 85 cm in men and ≥ 80 cm in women;
• be able to read and write without severe hearing and vision problems.

Exclusion Criteria:

• suffering from severe heart disease or metabolic disorders (e.g. renal diseases, diabetes) or autoimmune disease, cancer, or any other diseases/ conditions which may affect food intake and digestion or amputee;
• cognitively impaired (e.g. dementia) may impede the delivery of the intervention;
• under special diet restriction such as on diabetes disease diet, vegetarian, ketogenic diet, etc.;
• using of medications that may influence eating behavior, digestion or metabolism (such as weight loss medication);
• addicted to alcohol;
• a metal device is implanted in the body;
• be engaged in another trials.