# Early Frailty Biomarkers: Patterns of Activity and Energy Expenditure

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2021 · $144,834

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
By 2050, the American population will consist of 88.5 million older adults with a rising prevalence of frailty.
Frailty identifies those with diminished physiologic reserve and is increasingly being used to recognize
individuals at high risk of rehospitalization, surgical mortality, and health care resource utilization. As a
geriatrician with advanced training in Epidemiology, I struggle daily to care for complex, frail patients and
recognize the need for accurate tools to quantify frailty risk, trend progression, and to, importantly, guide
interventions. Low self-reported physical activity participation is part of the clinical frailty syndrome, yet self-
report fails to adequately identify those exhibiting this criterion in their daily lives due to inherent biases.
Relying on self-report alone risks under-identifying high-risk individuals and limiting our ability to address this
potentially modifiable component. Very little is known about how patterns of activity and sedentary behavior
measured by objective monitoring are related to frailty-associated outcomes and how these measures can be
applied clinically to predict frailty progression and to guide individualized treatment. My immediate goal and
the objective of this proposal is to study how measures of (in)activity relate to frailty and aging outcomes and
how they can be used to inform a frailty intervention. I hypothesize that unique, identifiable patterns of
(in)activity as measured by activity monitors will predict those who go on to experience a decline in their frailty
and aging measures and can be used to tailor treatment recommendations. To test these hypotheses, the
following aims are proposed: Aim 1) Characterize activity and sedentary behavior among non-frail, pre-frail,
and frail subgroups using activity monitors and relate these measures to 5-year frailty and aging outcomes;
Aim 2) In my independent, longitudinal frailty study, relate activity, sedentary behavior, sit-to-stand transitions
and cadence to change in frailty components and aging outcomes at 1-year; and Aim 3) Design and pilot test a
frailty intervention tool that addresses activity barriers among frail adults and tailors activity targets for frail
individuals using identified accelerometry deficits. I will relate activity monitor output from the National Social
Life, Health and Aging Project data (2010-2011, 2015-2016) to frailty and aging outcomes at 5 years. I will
then translate these findings in my established clinical cohort (Successful Aging and Frailty Evaluation clinic) of
predominantly pre-frail and frail adults using activity monitoring and 1-year outcomes. Finally, I will use the
findings from these studies in combination with patient and professional stakeholder input to design a
sustainable intervention appropriate for frail elders. These proposed studies will identify modifiable activity and
sedentary behaviors that can be measured using activity monitoring to detect frailty r...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10400496
- **Project number:** 3K23AG049106-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Megan J Huisingh-Scheetz
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $144,834
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2016-06-01 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10400496

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10400496, Early Frailty Biomarkers: Patterns of Activity and Energy Expenditure (3K23AG049106-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10400496. Licensed CC0.

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