Limitations
death, infections
ADVERSE EVENTS, DISEASES, RECRUITMENT, INFECTIONS, SEQUELAE
The following limitations should be considered. The project will implement an intervention of 3 different programs of physical exercise in older patients with post-COVID-19 sequelae, and aims to determine which of the three programs is the most effective. The participants will be recruited through primary health care centers and hospitals, which makes the participant recruitment process difficult, and thus, the meetings of the supervisors of each center and with the medical personnel. The success of the process depends on medical recruitment, and it is difficult to assert that the complete estimated sample will carry out all the exercise programs. This is further complicated considering the possible study participant losses by persons who dropout for different types of reasons after having initiated the study (diseases, lack of motivation, post-COVD-19 symptomatology, among others).On the other hand, during the intervention period, a series of strategies have been developed to promote adherence and participation with the aim of avoiding the greater than 10% dropout rate estimated for the study. Satisfactory adherence is considered with a minimum of ≥ 80% attendance to the scheduled exercise sessions. However, if the final expected sample size is not achieved in the initial recruitment or during the development of the exercise intervention programs and the dropout rate is higher than expected, a second recruitment and intervention phase could be implemented after the 5If with the previously described conditions we do not achieve a relevant sample based on the estimations made, a comparison will be performed between a group of older patients with post-COVID-19 sequelae who carry out a supervised plan with combined strength and aerobic exercises and a control group. In this case, it could not be investigated which exercise program is more effective, however, it could be determined if an exercise program combining aerobic stimuli of endurance with stimuli of strength is effective for improving persistent COVID-19 symptomatology is older people.Finally, serious adverse events that affect the normal development of the intervention program will be immediately reported to the project steering committee, which will contact the ethics committee of the Mataró hospital (period less than 5 days) in order to preserve the protection and participant safety. The main serious adverse events will be diseases, infections, hospital admissions, death, etc.