Physical activity and the risk of frailty among community-dwelling healthy older adults A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Frailty has become one of the biggest challenges in facilitating healthy aging. Our study aims to investigate the association between physical activity and the risk of frailty, meanwhile, conduct a dose-response to observe the relationship between physical activity volume and frailty. Method: We will systematically search six databases to identify cohort studies assessing the association between physical activity and risk of frailty. Risk of bias of individual study will be assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Data will be analyzed by using STATA V. 12.0. Results: The results of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Conclusion: We will first investigate whether specific-physical activity reduce the risk to onset frailty in healthy older adults. However, predictable heterogeneity may exist in our study because of the inconsistent definitions of frailty.