Older Adults’ Experience With Fall Prevention Recommendations Derived From the STEADI

Abstract

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths & Injuries (STEADI) toolkit is a national effort to prevent falls among older adults. Studies have been conducted on implementation of the STEADI, but no studies have investigated older adults’ adherence to or perceptions of fall prevention recommendations delineated within the STEADI algorithm. Semistructured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of older adults 6 months after attending a falls risk assessment. Seventy-nine percent accurately recalled their fall risk, 57% followed one or more recommendations, and 32% did not recall at least one recommendation correctly. The most common recommendation recalled and adhered to was exercise. No participants recalled or adhered to recommendations including medication review, taking time changing positions, vision check, podiatrist visit, or physical therapy. Thirty-two percent fell. Of these, 55.6% did not follow any recommendations. Interview transcripts were analyzed using comparative methodology following the tenets of thematic analysis. Three themes emerged: participating in fall prevention, barriers to following recommendations, and providers can encourage people to prevent falls. An unexpected facilitator to participation in fall prevention efforts emerged—older adults’ perception that they were positively influencing society by participating in research and working with students and the university. This finding provides an opportunity for providers of health education to address the growing public health issue of falls among older adults while also creating opportunities for students to engage in community service and interdisciplinary service learning.

Aging safely in Alentejo – understanding for action - preventing falls and violence against older people: study rationale, aims, design, and preliminary results

“…Surprisingly, it was observed that there were participants at high risk of falling who were unaware of this fact and that there were participants who were victims of violence, particularly psychological violence, who did not "know" that they were being subjected to violence. The first observation is in accordance with previous studies reporting that many older persons are aware of the consequences falling but have a poor awareness of their own risk of falling [51]. Nevertheless, the second observation was unexpected because the literature usually reports that the institutional and governmental agents' lack of knowledge is a barrier to violence prevention [14]; but, in this study, it became evident that the victims of violence themselves were not aware of their condition.…”

Impact of an Interprofessional Health Student Education Program on Older Adult Participants

“…As shown in previous literature, student-facilitated health education can have a positive impact on the health behaviors of older adult participants ( Hjertstedt et al, 2014 ; Liang En et al, 2011 ; Livsey et al, 2020 ). In addition, older adults find HP student interactions meaningful and important ( du Plessis et al, 2013 ; Reitmaier et al, 2015 ; Vincenzo & Patton, 2021 ). It is clear that HP students can provide older adults with meaningful health and safety education, further supporting the needs of people in this growing segment of our society.…”

“…Relatively fewer studies have assessed older adults’ perceptions, attitudes, and health changes after HP student clinical or educational interventions. Programs described in the literature involve students in nursing ( du Plessis et al, 2013 ; Latimer & Mezey, 2001 ; Livsey et al, 2020 ; Reitmaier et al, 2015 ), physical therapy ( Vincenzo & Patton, 2021 ), dentistry ( Hjertstedt et al, 2014 ; Northridge et al, 2017 ), and medicine ( Liang En et al, 2011 ). Additional studies represent collaborative efforts between students of different disciplines: Medical and nurse practitioner students ( Kaplan et al, 2017 ; Kata et al, 2018 ); exercise physiology, physical therapy, nursing, and nutrition students ( Seymour & Cannon, 2010 ); and nursing, nutrition, and pharmacy students ( Lee et al, 2013 ).…”

Screening Gait Performance, Falls, and Physical Activity among Benedictine and Trappist Monks

“…Interestingly, fallers performed poorer and traversed traditional cutoff scores recognized for fall risk on both tests compared with non-faller performance. 33 , 42 , 43 …”