Falls are a leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injury, and fear of falling decreases older adults' independence and ability to do typical activities. Multifactorial falls prevention programs have been effective in decreasing the number of falls and fear of falling. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the implementation of a brief fall risk education program increased the awareness of fall risk among older adults in the surrounding community. A total of 25 participants, with a mean age of 78.64 years, from four different community-based sites were included in the mixed methods pretest-posttest design. The participants were educate don the eight aspects of the My 'Safe and Sound' Plan workbook, filled out the S-FES-I pre- and post-education, and participated in a focus group after the educational component. Data were analyzed using a Related Samples Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. Investigators noted, although not significant, raw S-FES-I scores trended toward an improvement from pre- to post- scores. The program was viewed as quality resource for individuals who followed through with the intervention, and those that did not follow through with the workbook had priorities other than fall risk. The results suggested that a brief educational falls prevention program increased the fall risk awareness of the participants and can be an effective resource for clinicians.

Creator

• Brown, Fiona

• Crull, Meghan

• Zaborowicz, Katherine

• Sellers, Aundrea

• Ham, Kiersten

• Thomas, Ellen

Contributors

• Howard, Brenda S.

Publisher

• University of Indianapolis

Language

• en

Identifier

• 655-06 Howard.pdf

Keyword

• Health Sciences

• Occupational Therapy

Date created

• 2017-12

Rights statement

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/