Falls prevention in residential care homes: a randomised controlled trial
- PMID: 15381507
- DOI: 10.1093/ageing/afh204
Falls prevention in residential care homes: a randomised controlled trial
Abstract
Objective: to determine the effect of risk factor modification and balance exercise on falls rates in residential care homes.
Design: cluster randomised controlled trial.
Participants: 196 residents (aged 60 years or over) in 20 residential care homes were enrolled (38% response rate). Homes were randomly allocated to intervention and control arms. A total of 102 residents were consigned to the intervention arm and 94 to the control arm.
Intervention: a multifactorial falls prevention programme including 3 months gait and balance training, medication review, podiatry and optometry.
Main outcome measures: number of falls/recurrent falls per person, number of medications per person, and change in Tinetti gait and balance measure.
Results: in the intervention group there was a mean of 2.2 falls per resident per year compared with 4.0 in the control group; this failed to reach statistical significance (P = 0.2) once the intra-cluster correlation (ICC, 0.10) had been accounted for. Several risk factors were reduced in the intervention arm.
Conclusions: falls risk factor reduction is possible in residents of care homes. A modest reduction in falls rates was demonstrated but this failed to reach statistical significance.
Comment in
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Preventing falls and injuries in care homes.Age Ageing. 2004 Nov;33(6):532-5. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afh239. Age Ageing. 2004. PMID: 15501834 No abstract available.
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