Table 1.

Summary of main projects in the PANINI network

ESR and location	Projects	Main methodologies	Sample/cohort	Primary outcome variables
1. Vrije University, Amsterdam, and University of Birmingham	Development of PANINI standardised toolkit Creation of PANINI shared data set	Assessment of prevalence of malnutrition and low physical performance/activity according to different risk screening and assessment tools over different ageing populations in Europe	New PANINI data and existing data sets (Birmingham Hip Fracture, EMPOWER, MUMC+, COGA, ERMA, Grey Power 1 and 2, NU-AGE, ProMo and Bronovo)	Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire (SNAQ), hand-grip strength, Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), Timed up and go, and gait speed
2. University of Birmingham	Seated Physical Activity in Ageing (SPAA) feasibility study Keeping Active in Residential Elderly (KARE) feasibility study	Resistance training using HUR leg strength training machine versus Move it or Lose it activity programme Resistance training using HUR strength training machines	Hospitalised frail older adults Frail residents of care homes aged 60+ years	Feasibility, Physical function (SPPB, hand-grip strength), Blood measures (CRP, IL-6, TNFa, Cortisol, DHEA/S)
3. University of Birmingham	Intervention to reduce sitting time in older adults undergoing orthopaedic surgery: a feasibility study Protocol for a definitive trial	Behaviour change techniques (individualised feedback, individualised goal setting, motivational interviewing, phone calls, health education, environmental modification)	Orthopaedic patients aged 65 years and over	Feasibility, Physical activity—IPAQ & ActivPal accelerometer, Measure of Older Adults’ Sedentary Time (MOST), Blood measures (Albumin, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, Vit. D., CRP, IL-6, TNFa, Cortisol, DHEA/S, Transferrin)
4. University of Birmingham	Diet and eating behaviours in ethnically diverse older adults	Explore changes in social networks over 8-months and assess their prediction of dietary intake and physical function via the use of the Wenger Social Network Typology tool, repeated 24-hr recalls with in-depth semi-structured interviews	Community-dwelling ethnically diverse adults aged 60 years and older	Dietary intake, influences on eating behaviours, social network typology, physical function (SPPB)
5. Eindhoven University of Technology	Ageing and lifestyle impact on skeletal muscle function	Systems Biology, computational modelling, genome-scale metabolic models (GSMM), machine learning	New PANINI data, NU-AGE, MYOage, MUMC+	Quantitative and predictive models, describing metabolic activity (flux) in different age groups, predicting effects of diet and physical activity
6. University of Minho, Portugal	Nutrition effects on well-being and cognitive function	Collection of dietary data of ‘good’ and ‘poor’ cognitive performers and ascertainment of the impact of dietary variables on cognitive trajectories. Study of the impact of dietary changes on cognitive performance	Community-dwellers aged 55+ years	Neuropsychological evaluation Nutritional intake (food diaries, food frequency questionnaires)
7. University of Jyvaskyla, Finland	Physical activity, muscle function and psychological characteristics during menopausal transition	Comprehensive assessment of muscle function, physical activity and psychological characteristics in middle-aged women carefully characterized according to the menopausal status. Cross-sectional and follow-up designs	48–55 year old women characterized, according to the bleeding diary and hormonal assessment, as being pre-, peri- or postmenopausal	Muscle function; hand-grip and knee extension strength, muscle power, gait speed (6 min and 10 m). Psychological characteristics: depression and life satisfaction
8. The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research	Mechanisms of physical exercise effects in surgical patients	Preoperative risk stratification, assessment of physical fitness, (home-based) prehabilitation high-risk patients	Patients undergoing major elective abdominal surgery	Feasibility, steep ramp test performance, hand-grip strength, timed up-and-go test, five times sit-to-stand test, time to recovery of physical functioning, morbidity, length of stay
9. Vrije University Amsterdam	Nutrition and physical activity to counteract sarcopaenia	DEXA, BIA, food frequency questionnaire, ventilated hood	SHAPE study (geriatric outpatients with fall risk)	Muscle mass
10. University of Bologna	Epigenetics of nutrition in ageing	DNA methylation analysis (gene-targeted) by Sequenom ® MassARRAY EpiTYPER platform	NU-AGE samples and new PANINI data	Changes in DNA methylation patterns induced by dietary and physical interventions. Development of a gene-targeted epigenetic clock
11. Personal genomics	Genetics of nutrition in ageing	Development of a bioinformatic pipeline for the identification of Single Nucleotide Variations correlated with ageing phenotypes and response to nutritional interventions of elders. Common annotation sources will be exploited to integrate all the information available for a single variant	NU-AGE and PANINI data	List of genetic variants correlated with ageing phenotypes and nutritional interventions

NB all projects will implement the PANINI toolkit, but some parts may be secondary outcome variables depending on the research question