Vitamin D3 - Omega3 - Home Exercise - Healthy Ageing and Longevity Trial (Acronym: DO-HEALTH)
Abstract
The European population is aging rapidly which poses a challenge on the individual, the European societies, and health care systems. Among the most promising public health interventions that may extend healthy life expectancy at older age are vitamin D, marine omega-3 fatty acids and physical exercise. However, their individual and combined effects have yet to be confirmed in a clinical trial.
The broad aim of DO-HEALTH is to prolong healthy life expectancy in European seniors. The specific aim is to establish whether vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, and a simple home exercise program will prevent disease at older age.
To achieve these aims, DO-HEALTH will enroll 2152 community-dwelling men and women who are 70 years and older, an age when chronic diseases increase substantially. The DO-HEALTH seniors will be recruited from 7 European cities (Zurich, Basel, Geneva, Toulouse, Berlin, Innsbruck and Coimbra) and will be randomized in a 2x2x2 factorial design trial to a simple home exercise program and/or vitamin D, and/or omega-3 fatty acids, over a 3 year period. This will allow to test the individual and the combined benefit of the interventions in the prevention of 5 primary endpoints: incident non-vertebral fractures; functional decline; systolic and diastolic blood pressure change; cognitive decline; and the rate of any infection. Key secondary endpoints include incidence of hip fractures, rate of falls, severity of pain in symptomatic knee osteoarthritis, gastro-intestinal…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 2,157 participants or records.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Promising Sources of Plant-Derived Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: A Narrative Review
- Effects of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake in patients with chronic kidney disease: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
- Effect of omega-3 fatty acids on cognition: an updated systematic review of randomized clinical trials
- The role of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus: A narrative review
- Paucity of evidence for a relationship between long-chain omega-3 fatty acid intake and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review
- Omega-3 fatty acid nanocarriers: Characterization and potential applications
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.