Participant recruitment
Senior residents of long-term care aged 65 years or older who met certain disability criteria were recruited. Inclusion criteria were: 1) lived in residential LTC institutions for at least three months; 2) had an activities of daily living (ADL) score under 100 according to the Barthel Index [To determine an adequate sample size, a priori two-sided power analyses were calculated to identify a statistically significant effect (α = 0.05) and power of 0.80. Based on the given effect size estimated by a prior study, the effect size of Cohen's d was set at 0.36 in G-Power 3.1. The least sample size estimate was 22 participants per group; and if allowing a 20% attrition rate, the final sample should include 52 eligible participants in total.The flow of participants through each stage of study is shown in Fig. Flow diagram of the study