Fall Prevention Among Community Living Elderly

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Accidental Falls/Prevention and Control
• Interventions: Other: Complete intervention; Other: Basic intervention

• Registration Number: NCT01705912
• Lead Sponsor: Gunilla Fahlstrom

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to assess effects of a home exercise program, supervised by assistant nurses with the aim of preventing falls.

Community living persons 65 years of age or older having a risk of falling were invited to participate. Participants were randomized to either training or control.

The training program was individually designed by a physiotherapist and the 5-month program performance was supervised in the partcipants home by eight home visits from an assistant nurse.

All participants received a visit from an occupational therapist who assessed the home and, if necessary, gave advice.

Detailed Description

Falls among elderly are a major public health problem, but preventive interventions containing physical exercise and home improvement are available.

In this study the crucial question was to test whether unlicensed staff, assistant nurses, could be used for preventive work.

Estimation of study power gave that 170 participants in each group would be needed to detect a difference in days with falls, the main outcome measure.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2007-01
• Primary Completion: 2009-12
• Study Completion: 2009-12
• Status Verified: 2012-10
• Study First Submitted: 2012-10-09
• Study First Submitted QC: 2012-10-11
• Last Update Submitted: 2012-10-11
• Study First Posted: 2012-10-12
• Last Update Posted: 2012-10-12

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 148

Inclusion Criteria

• community living persons at least 65 years old
• independent walking ability with or without walking aid
• experienced at least one fall during the last 12 months
• ability to communicate and cooperate with study staff

Exclusion Criteria

• ongoing physiotherapy treatment
• ongoing participation in exercise/acitivity containing balance and strength enhancing components
• a dementia diagnose
• mental disorder that affects possibility to communicate and cooperate
• other medical reason making participation inte the study inappropriate.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Training	Complete intervention	Complete intervention i.e. basic intervention + individual training program.
Control	Basic intervention	Basic intervention.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Number of days with fall	12 months	Self reported calendar data

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Exercise	12 months	Self reported calendar data

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Family medicine research center; 🇸🇪 Orebro, Sweden