DO-HEALTH / Vitamin D3 - Omega3 - Home Exercise - Healthy Ageing and Longevity Trial

Summary

The European population is aging rapidly which poses a challenge on the individual, the European societies, and health care systems. Among the most promising public health interventions that may extend healthy life expectancy at older age are vitamin D, marine omega-3 fatty acids and physical exercise. However, their individual and combined effects have yet to be confirmed in a clinical trial. The broad aim of DO-HEALTH is to prolong healthy life expectancy in European seniors. The specific aim is to establish whether vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, and a simple home exercise program will prevent disease at older age. To achieve these aims, DO-HEALTH will enroll 2152 community-dwelling men and women who are 70 years and older, an age when chronic diseases increase substantially. The DO-HEALTH seniors will be recruited from 7 European cities (Zurich, Basel, Geneva, Toulouse, Berlin, Innsbruck and Coimbra) and will be randomized in a 2x2x2 factorial design trial to a simple home exercise program and/or vitamin D, and/or omega-3 fatty acids, over a 3 year period. This will allow to test the individual and the combined benefit of the interventions in the prevention of 5 primary endpoints: incident non-vertebral fractures; functional decline; systolic and diastolic blood pressure change; cognitive decline; and the rate of any infection. Key secondary endpoints include incidence of hip fractures, rate of falls, severity of pain in symptomatic knee osteoarthritis, gastro-intestinal symptoms, mental and oral health, quality of life, and mortality. All clinical endpoints will be supported by a large DO-HEALTH biomarker study to evaluate the effect of the interventions at the cellular level of multi-organ function. DO-HEALTH will further evaluate reasons why or why not seniors adhere to the 3 interventions, and will assess their cost-benefit in a health economic model based on documented health care utilization and observed incidence of chronic disease. website DO-HEALTH: http://do-health.eu/wordpress/

Timeline

Start

2012-12-20

Primary completion

2017-11-17

Completion

2018-01-19

Publications

• Rosler W, Kistler-Fischbacher M, Gangler S, Markus MG, Reto KW, Orav JE, Dawson-Hughes B, Ryan J, Belsky DW, Horvath S, Willett WC, Wieczorek M, Bischoff-Ferrari HA. Trajectories of physical function and biological aging in generally healthy older adults with and without incident invasive cancer over a three-year follow-up: findings from the DO-HEALTH study. NPJ Aging. 2026 Mar 23. doi: 10.1038/s41514-026-00360-2. Online ahead of print.
• Wieczorek M, Funk J, Mattle M, Gangler S, Egli A, Kressig RW, Manz MG, Bischoff-Ferrari HA; DO-HEALTH Research group. Association between hemoglobin levels and mild cognitive impairment in generally healthy European community-dwelling older adults: a 3-year prospective analysis of the DO-HEALTH trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2026 Feb;123(2):101114. doi: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2025.11.005. Epub 2025 Nov 13.
• Kistler-Fischbacher M, Gohar G, de Godoi Rezende Costa Molino C, Geiling K, Meyer-Heim T, Kressig RW, Orav EJ, Vellas B, Guyonnet S, da Sliva JAP, Rizzoli R, Armbrecht G, Steinhagen-Thiessen E, Egli A, Bischoff-Ferrari HA. Cognitive function in generally healthy adults age 70 years and older in the 5-country DO-HEALTH study: MMSE and MoCA scores by sex, education and country. Aging Clin Exp Res. 2025 Mar 17;37(1):88. doi: 10.1007/s40520-025-02946-4.
• de Godoi Rezende Costa Molino C, Forster CK, Wieczorek M, Orav EJ, Kressig RW, Vellas B, Egli A, Freystaetter G, Bischoff-Ferrari HA; DO-HEALTH Research Group. Association of fall risk-increasing drugs with falls in generally healthy older adults: a 3-year prospective observational study of the DO-HEALTH trial. BMC Geriatr. 2024 Nov 29;24(1):980. doi: 10.1186/s12877-024-05557-2.
• Kistler-Fischbacher M, Armbrecht G, Gangler S, Theiler R, Rizzoli R, Dawson-Hughes B, Kanis JA, Hofbauer LC, Schimmer RC, Vellas B, Da Silva JAP, John OE, Kressig RW, Andreas E, Lang W, Wanner GA, Bischoff-Ferrari HA; DO-HEALTH Research Group. Effects of vitamin D3, omega-3s, and a simple strength training exercise program on bone health: the DO-HEALTH randomized controlled trial. J Bone Miner Res. 2024 Jul 23;39(6):661-671. doi: 10.1093/jbmr/zjae054.
• Gaengler S, Sadlon A, De Godoi Rezende Costa Molino C, Willett WC, Manson JE, Vellas B, Steinhagen-Thiessen E, Von Eckardstein A, Ruschitzka F, Rizzoli R, da Silva JAP, Kressig RW, Kanis J, Orav EJ, Egli A, Bischoff-Ferrari HA. Effects of vitamin D, omega-3 and a simple strength exercise programme in cardiovascular disease prevention: The DO-HEALTH randomized controlled trial. J Nutr Health Aging. 2024 Feb;28(2):100037. doi: 10.1016/j.jnha.2024.100037. Epub 2024 Jan 9.
• Gagesch M, Wieczorek M, Abderhalden LA, Lang W, Freystaetter G, Armbrecht G, Kressig RW, Vellas B, Rizzoli R, Blauth M, Orav EJ, Egli A, Bischoff-Ferrari HA. Grip strength cut-points from the Swiss DO-HEALTH population. Eur Rev Aging Phys Act. 2023 Aug 5;20(1):13. doi: 10.1186/s11556-023-00323-6.
• Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Willett WC, Manson JE, Dawson-Hughes B, Manz MG, Theiler R, Braendle K, Vellas B, Rizzoli R, Kressig RW, Staehelin HB, Da Silva JAP, Armbrecht G, Egli A, Kanis JA, Orav EJ, Gaengler S. Combined Vitamin D, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and a Simple Home Exercise Program May Reduce Cancer Risk Among Active Adults Aged 70 and Older: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Front Aging. 2022 Apr 25;3:852643. doi: 10.3389/fragi.2022.852643. eCollection 2022.
• de Godoi Rezende Costa Molino C, Chocano-Bedoya PO, Sadlon A, Theiler R, Orav JE, Vellas B, Rizzoli R, Kressig RW, Kanis JA, Guyonnet S, Lang W, Egli A, Bischoff-Ferrari HA; DO-HEALTH Research Group. Prevalence of polypharmacy in community-dwelling older adults from seven centres in five European countries: a cross-sectional study of DO-HEALTH. BMJ Open. 2022 Apr 29;12(4):e051881. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051881.
• Schietzel S, Chocano-Bedoya PO, Sadlon A, Gagesch M, Willett WC, Orav EJ, Kressig RW, Vellas B, Rizzoli R, da Silva JAP, Blauth M, Kanis JA, Egli A, Bischoff-Ferrari HA. Prevalence of healthy aging among community dwelling adults age 70 and older from five European countries. BMC Geriatr. 2022 Mar 2;22(1):174. doi: 10.1186/s12877-022-02755-8.
• Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Vellas B, Rizzoli R, Kressig RW, da Silva JAP, Blauth M, Felson DT, McCloskey EV, Watzl B, Hofbauer LC, Felsenberg D, Willett WC, Dawson-Hughes B, Manson JE, Siebert U, Theiler R, Staehelin HB, de Godoi Rezende Costa Molino C, Chocano-Bedoya PO, Abderhalden LA, Egli A, Kanis JA, Orav EJ; DO-HEALTH Research Group. Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation, Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation, or a Strength-Training Exercise Program on Clinical Outcomes in Older Adults: The DO-HEALTH Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2020 Nov 10;324(18):1855-1868. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.16909.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.