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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2011 Dec;59(12):2314-20.
doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2011.03698.x. Epub 2011 Oct 21.

Community aging in place, advancing better living for elders: a bio-behavioral-environmental intervention to improve function and health-related quality of life in disabled older adults

Sarah L Szanton  1 , Roland J Thorpe, Cynthia Boyd, Elizabeth K Tanner, Bruce Leff, Emily Agree, Qian-Li Xue, Jerilyn K Allen, Christopher L Seplaki, Carlos O Weiss, Jack M Guralnik, Laura N Gitlin
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Community aging in place, advancing better living for elders: a bio-behavioral-environmental intervention to improve function and health-related quality of life in disabled older adults

Sarah L Szanton et al. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2011 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: To determine effect size and acceptability of a multicomponent behavior and home repair intervention for low-income disabled older adults.

Design: Prospective randomized controlled pilot trial.

Setting: Participants' homes.

Participants: Forty low-income older adults with difficulties in one or more activities of daily living (ADLs) or two or more instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs).

Intervention: The Community Aging in Place, Advancing Better Living for Elders (CAPABLE), coordinated occupational therapy, nursing, and handyman visits, was compared with attention-control visits. The intervention consisted of up to six visits with an occupational therapist, up to four visits with a nurse, and an average of $1,300 in handyman repairs and modifications. Each intervention participant received all components of the intervention clinically individualized to risk profile and goals. Each attention-control participant received the same number of visits as the intervention participants, involving sedentary activities of their choice.

Primary outcome: difficulty in performing ADLs and IADLs.

Secondary outcomes: health-related quality of life and falls efficacy.

Results: Thirty-five of 40 adults (87%) completed the 6-month trial, and 93% and 100% of the control and intervention group, respectively, stated that the study benefited them. The intervention group improved on all outcomes. When comparing mean change in the intervention group with mean change in the control group from baseline to follow-up, the CAPABLE intervention had effect sizes of 0.63 for reducing difficulty in ADLs, 0.62 for reducing difficulty in IADLs, 0.89 for quality of life, and 0.55 for falls efficacy.

Conclusion: The CAPABLE intervention was acceptable to participants and feasible to provide and showed promising results, suggesting that this multicomponent intervention to reduce disability should be evaluated in a larger trial.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The editor in chief has reviewed the conflict of interest checklist provided by the authors and has determined that the authors have no financial or any other kind of personal conflicts with this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow of participants in the CAPABLE trial 1IADL = Instrumental Activities of Daily Living. 2ADL= Activity of Daily Living.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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