Assessment superseded
Metformin for Preventing Frailty in High-risk Older Adults
Trial registry update: COMPLETED. Results are posted in the registry; assessment pending.
RCTN=125Notable significance
What this changes
The finding has not established an approved change to our evidence assessment.
Source date: Aug 6, 2025 · Discovered: Sep 15, 2026 · Assessed: — · Historical research backfill
What it does not prove
- No actual findings are reported, so no conclusions about metformin's efficacy can be drawn from this text.
- The study's rationale—that insulin resistance and inflammation drive frailty—is stated as an investigator hypothesis, not an established fact.
- Without results, it cannot be determined whether the intervention actually prevents frailty, ameliorates progression, or has any clinical effect.
Extracted from supplied source material; model confidence is not a measured probability of correctness.
Study details
- Design
- Rct
- Sample size
- 125
- Duration
- —
- Population
- High-risk older adults; mean age 71-72 years; 48% female (68/141 at baseline); 93% White, 4% African American, 2% Other; 35% Hispanic or Latino
- Primary outcome
- Fried Frailty Phenotype Criteria: covariate adjusted monthly rate of change in Fried frailty score (range 0-5) from baseline to 2 years. Metformin: 0.0289 (SE 0.0049); Placebo: 0.0164 (SE 0.0058)
- Effect size
- Primary outcome - Metformin: 0.0289 (SE 0.0049); Placebo: 0.0164 (SE 0.0058). Secondary outcome - Metformin: -0.0002 (SE 0.0002); Placebo: 0.0002 (SE 0.0002)
- Significance
- Not reported
- Journal
- The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
- Published
- Oct 15, 2026
Sources
Primary source
Recorded source passages
Abstract or registry material supplied for assessment; source version 1. This is not a claim of full-text review.
Frailty is a geriatric syndrome which leads to poor health outcomes in older adults, such as falls, disability, hospitalization, institutionalization, and death.
the major goal of this study is to test metformin as a novel intervention for the prevention of frailty
The investigators propose that diabetes/insulin resistance and inflammation are major contributors to frailty, and that the use of metformin to modulate diabetes/insulin resistance and inflammation will prevent and/or ameliorate the progression of frailty.
Source versions
Assessment history
10/15/2026 · SUPERSEDED: Source updated; assessment withdrawn pending review.
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