Ng, Ted Kheng SiangMatchar, David BruceSultana, RehenaChan, Angelique2021-05-052021-05-052020-03-242077-03832077-0383https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22771<h4>Background</h4>Population aging poses unprecedented demands on the healthcare system. There is also a scarcity of evidence on self-care intervention to improve objective measures of morbidity and aging-associated functional and physiological measures in a low-income multi-ethnic population setting.<h4>Methods</h4>We conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01672177) to examine the effects of the Self-Care for Older PErsons (SCOPE) program. We randomized 14 Senior Activity Centers and randomly selected older adults within these centers. Functional and physiological measurements were performed at baseline, 10-month, and 18-month periods. The primary outcome was a composite of three morbidity-specific measures, which include hemoglobin A1c (HbA1C), peak expiratory flow, and systolic blood pressure. Aging-associated functional and physiological measures were examined as secondary outcomes. Repeated-measure mixed models were employed to examine the effects of SCOPE on these measures.<h4>Results</h4>378 community-dwelling older adults participated in either the treatment (<i>n</i>= 164) or the control arm (<i>n</i> = 214). The primary outcome was not significantly improved. For the secondary outcomes, SCOPE participants demonstrated slower oxygen desaturation at an 18-month period (<i>p</i> = 0.001), improved time to complete the chair-stand test (<i>p</i> < 0.001) at a 10-month period with the effect persisting at the 18-month period (<i>p</i> < 0.001). SCOPE participants also had significantly improved vitamin B₁₂ levels at the 18-month period (<i>p</i> < 0.001), increased hemoglobin concentration (<i>p</i> < 0.001), decreased mean corpuscular volume (<i>p</i> = 0.001), and decreased creatinine (<i>p</i> = 0.002) at the 10-month period.<h4>Conclusions</h4>SCOPE did not improve morbidity-specific measures. However, it improved several aging-associated measures implicated in geriatric syndromes. This study highlights the potential of a self-care program in the prevention of geriatric syndromes in community-dwelling older adults, while emphasizing self-management to manage existing morbidities.community-based programfunctional measuresphysiological measuresrandomized control trialself-careJournal article2021-05-05