STUDY PROTOCOL article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1597645
This article is part of the Research TopicChallenges and Innovations in Healthcare Management and Long-Term Care for an Aging SocietyView all 20 articles
Potential Effectiveness of an ICOPE-Based Long-Term Care Intervention Program for Old Patients with Disabilities in Nursing Homes: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beihua University, Jilin, China
- 2Jilin University, Changchun, Hebei Province, China
- 3First Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China
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Background: With global population aging, functional disability has become a major public health and social care challenge. The integrated care model, centered on intrinsic capacity, aims to optimize functional abilities and improve health outcomes through systematic interventions. This approach offers innovative insights into long-term care for old patients with disabilities in institutional settings. Aims: To explore the effectiveness of an “Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE)-Based Long-Term Care Intervention Program” compared to a control group and to assess participants' perceptions of the program. Methods: This mixed-methods study will employ an explanatory sequential design, starting with a quantitative evaluation using a randomized controlled trial (RCT), followed by a supplementary qualitative study. The old patients with disabilities will be randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio into the intervention group or the control group. The old patients with disabilities in the intervention group will participate in a 12-week “ICOPE-Based Long-Term Care Intervention Program”, and in the control group will maintain their routine life and standard care practices. Participant outcomes in both conditions will be assessed at pre-intervention (T0, week 0), post-intervention (T1, week 12), and 1 month after the intervention (T2, week 16), and a generalized linear mixed model will be used for analysis. The primary outcome is the change in intrinsic capacity, with the significance of the mean difference assessed to determine the intervention effect. In the qualitative part of this study, interviews will be conducted with old patients with disabilities from the intervention group at T1 to explore their experiences of receiving the intervention, and content analysis will be applied to the data collected. Discussion: This study will assess the effectiveness of an “ICOPE-Based Long-Term Care Intervention Program” for old patients with disabilities in nursing homes. If effective, it could provide a feasible and structured approach to improving long-term care quality in institutional settings. Trial registration: This study has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (number: ChiCTR2400094580) on 25nd December 2024.
Keywords: ICOPE, delivery of integrated healthcare, Nursing Homes, Disability, Intrinsic capacity, protocol, Mixed methods intervention trial
Received: 21 Mar 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Qin, Huang, Li, Luan, Miao, Gong, Liu and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Wei Liu, Beihua University, Jilin, China
Li Chen, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, Hebei Province, China
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