Ageing WellHEX:AGEUKNCT07916935
Eccentric Exercise in Community-dwelling Older Adults
A study testing Eccentric exercise intervention in people with Ageing Well, run by The University of Northampton at 1 site in United Kingdom.
Trial summary
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. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 65 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Ageing Well
- What is being tested?
- Eccentric exercise intervention
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 30 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited Kingdom
- Study dates
- 23 Nov 2026to 1 Jul 2027
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 65 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Age ≥ 65 years Ambulant with or without a walking aid
Who cannot join
- Inability to provide informed consent, assessed using the Mental Capacity Act two-stage assessment
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
United Kingdom1 site
University of Northampton
Northampton, Northamptonshire, NN1 5PH
About this study
Official title: 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?
Read more
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.
Read the 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.
- Conditions
- Ageing Well
- Being tested
- Eccentric exercise intervention
- Keywords
- Older adults, Strength, Frailty, Sarcopenia
- Medical subject headings
- Frailty, Sarcopenia
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Eccentric exercise interventionOther
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.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Intervention | Experimental | Eccentric exercise programme Receives: Other: Eccentric exercise intervention |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
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.
Measured: 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.
Measured: Up to 12 months
Secondary outcomes (5)
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.
Measured: 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.
Measured: 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.
Measured: 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.
Measured: 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.
Measured: Up to 12 months
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted4 Nov 2026
- Study start23 Nov 2026 (estimated)
- Primary completion30 Jun 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion1 Jul 2027 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Ageing WellStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Model description
- Single-group assignment. All enrolled participants will receive the eccentric-biased strengthening intervention. Participants will attend supervised exercise sessions over 12 months and complete outcome assessments at baseline and post-intervention.
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 30 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- The University of Northampton
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Brett Baxter, The University of Northampton
- Investigators
- Brett A. Baxter, PhD, Principal investigator, University of Northampton
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07916935
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- FHSHEA000518
- Acronym
- HEX:AGEUK
- Status last verified
- Oct 2026
- First submitted
- 22 Oct 2026
- Last updated
- 4 Nov 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- Yes
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- 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.
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 4 Nov 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- The Effects of an Eccentric-biased Strengthening Programme Delivered to Community-dwelling Older Adults"
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07916935
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- HEX:AGEUK / FHSHEA000518
- Conditions
- Ageing Well
- Keywords
- Older adults, Strength, Frailty, Sarcopenia
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Not yet recruiting
- Enrolment
- 30 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- The University of NorthamptonUniversity, hospital or other
- Study start
- 23 Nov 2026 (estimated)
- Primary completion
- 30 Jun 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion
- 1 Jul 2027 (estimated)
- First posted
- 4 Nov 2026 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
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.
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 design
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 1
- Model description
- Single-group assignment. All enrolled participants will receive the eccentric-biased strengthening intervention. Participants will attend supervised exercise sessions over 12 months and complete outcome assessments at baseline and post-intervention.
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Intervention | Experimental | Other: Eccentric exercise interventionEccentric exercise programme |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 65 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (1 listed)
- Age ≥ 65 years Ambulant with or without a walking aid
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- Inability to provide informed consent, assessed using the Mental Capacity Act two-stage assessment
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Eccentric exercise interventionParticipants 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. | Other | Intervention |
Primary outcome
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.
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.
5 secondary outcomes
Timed Up and Go Test
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Sit-to-stand Test
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Falls Efficacy Scale International
Time frame: Up to 12 months
EuroQol Five-Dimension Five-Level Questionnaire
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Intervention Acceptability
Time frame: Up to 12 months
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 4 Nov 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: 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.
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
Brett A. Baxter, PhD principal investigator
University of Northampton
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Eccentric exercise intervention in people with Ageing Well, run by The University of Northampton at 1 site in United Kingdom.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: opening soon, as of the sponsor's last update on 4 Nov 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United Kingdom. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact Brett A Baxter, PhD (01604892293, brett.baxter@northampton.ac.uk), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Feasibility of Intervention Recruitment (time frame: Up to 12 months). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 4 Nov 2026.