Lay summary
Increasing longevity presents advantages, but these advantages depends on a person’s overall health. Common age-related conditions including frailty and hypertension can negatively impact on quality of life. The prevalence of frailty in hypertensive older adults is extremely high at ~70%.
The treatment of hypertension in older adults comes with challenges due to the prevalence of comorbidities and consequent polypharmacy. This increases the risk of iatrogenic diseases, frailty and falls resulting in the loss of independence. It is therefore important to assess and target the presence of frailty in older persons with hypertension and pursue non-pharmaceutical approaches.
This research activity will explore the possibility of using individual personalised exercise training programs in different patient populations, specifically including Māori and Pacifica. Focus groups will enable establishing relationships to assess the acceptability of individualized exercise training programs, which will lead to an acceptable and effective interventions for a proposed future randomized controlled trial