Effectiveness of Home Visit Falls Prevention Strategy for Taiwanese Community‐Dwelling Elders: Randomized Trial

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of a multifactorial intervention to prevent falls by increasing self-efficacy to prevent falls, improving the knowledge of medication safety, and decreasing the number of environmental risks in older persons dwelling in the community. A sample of 120 cognitively intact residents of this community who were 65 years of age and older were recruited into a two-group pretest-post-test experimental design and randomly assigned to an experimental group and a comparison group (60 in each group). The intervention was delivered, and data were collected during three home visits in a 4-month period. (1) Experimental subjects improved their fall self-efficacy, environmental safety, and knowledge of medication safety significantly (p < 0.01) as compared with those in the comparison group at post-test; (2) the incidence of falls was reduced at post-test in both groups compared to pretest scores, and the falling was more serious in the comparison group at post-test compared to that in the experimental group. The results can help community health professionals to individualize their interventions to the specific needs of the elderly, thus helping to prevent falls among community-dwelling elders.

Interventions Aiming at Balance Confidence Improvement in Older Adults: An Updated Review

“…These results emphasize the importance of psychological factors on the pathway described in figure 1 . In addition, these findings confirm that an improvement in balance confidence can be achieved without an exercise component, as already observed in other studies [17,51] . However, it remains to be seen whether these benefits will also translate into an actual reduction of activity avoidance, an outcome that was not assessed in these studies.…”

Predictors of Falls Efficacy Scale responses among nursing home residents in China

“…Because fear of falling can have a significant impact on patient health, a measure of patient "confidence in carrying out daily activities without falling" has been created to track this important health factor and given the name "falls efficacy." [2] Activity reduction resulting from low falls efficacy has been reported to negatively impact both balance and body function, and these health outcomes, in turn, further lower the level of falls efficacy [5]. Fall efficacy is an effective predictor of patient falls and is associated with a significantly longer hospital stays.…”

Efectividad de las intervenciones para la prevención de caídas en ancianos: revisión sistemática

“…1), de los cuales 17 fueron excluidos por no cumplir los criterios de inclusión (guías prácticas y revisiones sistemáticas) (7,9,11,17,19,(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)38). Otros 6 estudios fueron eliminados por no superar el criterio de calidad metodológica (puntuación inferior a 5 puntos en la guía CASP) (12,14,36,37,39,40).…”

“…Muchos artículos citan que las diferentes intervenciones deberían ser individuales y no colectivas, para ser más efectiva la actividad. Pese a la preocupación sobre este tema y las diferentes medidas abarcadas para reducirlas, éstas no han tenido una suficiente efectividad (12,14,36,37,40,53,54).…”