[Therapeutic education in elderly over 75 years old living at home A pilot study of 48 patients]

Abstract

Therapeutic patient education (TPE) allows elderly as well as young adults to evaluate patient's self-care and adaptation skills to their own clinical condition. Falling is a symptom present in various chronic diseases, which leads to loss of autonomy, fear of recidivism and frequent admissions into institutions. Study objective was to evaluate at 3 and 6 months the impact of TPE on fall recurrence, perceived quality of life and fear of falling, in elderly over 75 living at home.

Methods: We performed a prospective study comparing two groups: a group participating in day hospital (group "TPE") and a control group (group "Hospitalized") of elderly patient not receiving TPE recruited in short geriatric stays following a fall at home.

Results: 28 patients in the "TPE" group and 20 patients in the "Hospitalized" group were included. The "TPE" group reported significantly better perceived quality of life at 3 months and 6 months. At 6 months, fear of falling was twice as high in the "Hospitalized" group than in the "TPE" group.

Conclusions: The group of subjects who was able to benefit from therapeutic education at home had an improved quality of life at 3 and 6 months and a decrease in the fear of falling at 6 months.

Keywords: day hospital; elderly; fall; multidisciplinary; therapeutic education.