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Article History

Received: 1 July 2024

Accepted: 8 October 2025

First Online: 4 November 2025

Declarations

:

: The ethics committee of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin had granted ethical approval for both the PRAEP-GO study (EA1/225/19) and the ANA-PRAEP-GO accompanying research project (EA1/266/20). For the present qualitative study, additional ethical approval was obtained from the ethics committee of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (EA1/272/22 dated 1 February 2023). All participants were transparently informed in advance about the qualitative study and the data protection regulations. Written informed consent was obtained before the interviews were conducted.

: Not applicable.

: CSc performed the research as part of her master’s thesis and declared no financial conflict of interest. TIF declares no financial conflict of interest. JK, KS, SJS, CSp and TR are involved in an ongoing randomised clinical trial on prehabilitation in the frail elderly (PRAEP-GO; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT04418271) funded by the Innovationsfonds des Gemeinsamen Bundesausschusses. JK and KS declare no financial conflict of interest.SJS received grants and non-financial support from Reactive Robotics GmbH (Munich, Germany), ASP GmbH (Attendorn, Germany), STIMIT AG (Biel, Switzerland), ESICM (Geneva, Switzerland), grants, personal fees and non-financial support from Fresenius Kabi Deutschland GmbH (Bad Homburg, Germany), grants from the Innovationsfond of The Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), personal fees from Springer Verlag GmbH (Vienna, Austria) for educational purposes and Advanz Pharma GmbH (Bielefeld, Germany), non-financial support from national and international societies (and their congress organisers) in the field of anesthesiology and intensive care medicine, outside the submitted work. SJS holds stocks in small amounts from Alphabeth Inc., Bayer AG and Siemens AG; these holdings have not affected any decisions regarding his research or this study.CSp reports grants from Innovationsfonds des Gemeinsamen Bundesausschusses, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Bundesministerium für Gesundheit/Robert Koch-Institut, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V., Einstein Stiftung Berlin, Inneruniversitäre Forschungsförderung, European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Baxter Deutschland GmbH, Cytosorbents Europe GmbH, Edwards Lifesciences Germany GmbH, Fresenius Medical Care, Grünenthal GmbH, Masimo Europe Ltd., Pfizer Pharma GmbH, Dr. F. Köhler Chemie GmbH, Sintetica GmbH, Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft e.V./Phillips, Stiftung Charité, AGUETTANT Deutschland GmbH, AbbVie Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, Amomed Pharma GmbH, InTouch Health, Copra System GmbH, Correvio GmbH, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V., Deutsche Gesellschaft für Anästhesiologie & Intensivmedizin, Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft e.V./Metronic, Philips Electronics Nederland BV, Drägerwerk AG & Co. KGaA; personal fees from Georg Thieme Verlag, all outside the submitted work.TR received honorary fees for commissioned research by the Statutory Health Insurance Medical Review Board outside the submitted work.