BEPOP Wave 2 Report Launched

AGE Research Group members celebrated the launch of the BEPOP wave 2 report last week. BEPOP (Benchmarking Exercise Programme for Older People) is a national quality improvement, benchmarking and feedback initiative that aims to improve the quality of resistance exercise training offered to older people living with frailty or sarcopenia.

The BEPOP programme is a joint initiative between AGILE (the professional network of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy for therapists working with older people), the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre and the British Geriatrics Society, who provided initial funding. AGE group members play a key leadership role, with Professor Miles Witham leading the BEPOP programme, and Professor Avan Sayer and Dr Chris Hurst sitting on the steering committee.

28 NHS physiotherapy services across the UK took part in wave 2, submitting data on 542 patients. The overall quality of resistance exercise training showed important improvements in wave 2 compared to wave 1, with more patients receiving measurement of muscle strength, more patients receiving a diagnosis of sarcopenia, and more patients encouraged to progress the intensity of exercises – an aspect of training which is essential to increase strength.

BEPOP lead Professor Miles Witham commented “We are really gratified by the number of colleagues who participated in wave 2, and by the improvements in the quality of strength training now being offered to patients. There are still plenty of further improvements that we need to make though, and so we have added additional specific recommendations to the wave 2 report”

“We are now just about to start data collection for wave 3 and we are delighted that 50 eligible services have expressed interest in taking part. BEPOP is all about feedback and learning from each other, and the more colleagues take part, the more successful our community will be in improving the quality of care we offer older people with sarcopenia and frailty”

Read the BEPOP wave 2 report at: www.bepop.org.uk

Last modified: Thu, 28 Aug 2025 12:24:35 BST