Effectiveness of Nutrition and Exercise Interventions Among Community-Dwelling Older Vietnamese Adults with Sarcopenia: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND/

OBJECTIVES

Exercise and nutrition are central to sarcopenia management, but Vietnamese evidence is limited. We compared exercise intervention (Ex) alone and Ex plus nutritional support against health education.

METHODS

In this study, a three-arm, parallel-group cluster-randomized controlled trial, three communities in Can Gio District were randomly selected and assigned 1:1:1 (one per arm) to health-education control, Ex, or combined intervention. Before allocation, 30 adults aged 60-70 years with AWGS 2019-defined sarcopenia were randomly selected from screening lists within each community (n = 90). Both active arms underwent 24 weeks of aerobic and resistance exercise, with weekly supervised sessions during weeks 1-12 and less-supervised home exercise thereafter. The combined arm also received weekly individualized nutrition counseling and a daily multinutrient oral supplement (270 kcal; 11 g protein) during weeks 1-12. Outcomes at baseline, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks were analyzed using sex-adjusted participant-level linear mixed-effects models.

RESULTS

At 24 weeks, adjusted differences in change (95% CIs) for Ex versus control and combined versus control were, respectively, 0.12 (0.02-0.22) and 0.01 (-0.09-0.11) kg/m2 for the skeletal muscle index; 2.49 (1.57-3.42) and 2.23 (1.30-3.15) kg for handgrip strength; and 0.206 (0.132-0.279) and 0.053 (-0.017-0.123) m/s for gait speed.

CONCLUSIONS

Both active communities showed better handgrip strength than control; only the Ex community showed a gait-speed advantage, while muscle-mass changes were modest. With one cluster per arm, treatment and community were confounded; definitive treatment effects and the independent contribution of nutrition cannot be determined.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07761091 (retrospectively registered on 12 August 2026).