Effects of teach-back health education (TBHE) based on WeChat mini-programs in preventing falls at home for urban older adults in China: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background Falls are common among adults aged 60 years and older because of physiological changes. Most falls in older adults occur most often at home. Coupled with the lack of awareness and knowledge of preventing falls, the proportion of injuries and deaths among older adults due to falls is increasing yearly. Our study developed a WeChat mini-program for urban elderly to implement teach-back health education (TBHE) that a repeated cycle process of health education, assessment, and re-education in preventing falls at home. Objectives This study aimed to evaluate the application effect of the TBHE-based WeChat mini-program on health education knowledge for fall prevention at home for urban older adults. Design A single-blinded, two-arm parallel-group, randomized controlled trial was conducted. Setting Three residential communities, named Hot Spring Apartment, Hualinyuan, and Dongtang Community in Gulou District, Fuzhou, China. Participants Participants were older adults recruited from communities in Fuzhou from January to March 2021. Methods Fifty-nine participants agreed to participate and were assigned randomly to the intervention group (n = 29) or the control group receiving traditional health education (n = 30). Each participant in the intervention group received twice a week for a total of 8 weeks of health education interventions performed by the first author that she is intervenor according to specific themes. The trial statistician, recruiters, and participants were blinded to group allocation. The intervenor (first author) was blinded to the study hypotheses. To evaluate the effects of the intervention, we assessed participants’ knowledge total score and scores of physiology and disease; drug application; mental, cognitive, and spiritual well-being; lifestyle; and house environment at baseline and 1-week post-intervention and compared scores between two groups. A two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted to examine the effects of time, group, and their interaction. Results There was a significant difference in knowledge of house environment (p = 0.003) between the two groups. Within groups, total and five dimensions knowledge scores had a significant difference (p < 0.001). Moreover, interaction effects were significant on drug application (p = 0.012) and mental, cognitive, and spiritual well-being (p = 0.015). Conclusions The TBHE can improve knowledge on fall prevention at home among urban older adults. The TBHE based on the WeChat mini-program could enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of being educated among urban older adults. Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Register: ChiCTR2100052946; reg date: 06/11/2021.

Development of the Home-Based Fall Prevention Knowledge (HFPK) questionnaire to assess home-based fall prevention knowledge levels among older adults in China

“…According to the 100-point scale, 85 ~ 100 is excellent, 75 ~ 84 is good, 60 ~ 74 is medium, and below 60 is poor [ 43 ]. The revised HFPK was categorized as follows: 58 ~ 68 as excellent, 51 ~ 57 as good, 41 ~ 50 as medium, and below 40 as poor [ 44 ].…”

Revolutionizing access to cardiovascular care for 1.4 billion people - How mobile health apps and services evolved from 2016-2020 in China and its implications

“…Mini-programs are apps embedded within another app, a feature allowing users to use a collection of apps without installing multiple applications on their smartphones. 15 Stand-alone apps were obtained for Android and iOS operating systems. For Android, apps were sampled from the ve top Android app stores, which accounted for more than three quarters of the market coverage, 16 namely: MyApp (Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China), Baidu (Baidu, Beijing, China), 360 (Qihoo 360 Technology, Beijing, China), Huawei (Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Shenzhen, China), and Oppo (Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd., Dongguan, China).…”

Telerehabilitation in Physiotherapy Science: A Scoping Review

“…The 20 studies that were included were about diseases related to the musculoskeletal system (five) [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ], the nervous system (six) [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 21 , 24 , 25 , 26 ], the proprioception-balance system (two) [ 27 , 28 ], the respiratory system (one) [ 29 ], the cardiovascular system (one) [ 30 ], the pelvic floor control (two) [ 31 , 32 ], and the autoimmune diseases (three) [ 33 , 34 , 35 ].…”

“…Two studies [ 27 , 28 ] conducted on elderly individuals (60 years or older) examined the relationship between proprioception and balance. [ 27 ] used an app that aimed at informing them about falls and providing informative videos. [ 28 ] used VR and balance training.…”