Evaluation and Development of Falls Prevention and Management in the Community for Older Adults

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Falls Risk; Falls Prevention
• Interventions: Behavioral: Positive Message Given - Older Adults; Behavioral: No Message Given; Behavioral: Positive Message Given - Younger Adults; Behavioral: Negative Message Given - Younger Adults; Behavioral: Negative Message Given - Older Adults

• Registration Number: NCT05198193
• Lead Sponsor: National University of Singapore

Brief Summary

This study investigates how differently-framed messages can affect people's attitude towards falls risk and prevention in older adults. This study considers the potentiality of adult children acting as change agents in influencing parents in falls prevention.

Detailed Description

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted to test the effectiveness of two messaging types (positively vs negatively framed) via two target audiences (older vs younger adults).

The RCT evaluates the effectiveness of the differently-framed messages delivered to older and younger adults in affecting people's attitude toward falls risk and motivating them to learn about preventing falls. Also, the potential of adult children acting as change agents to positively influence parents in preventing falls is explored.

Older and younger adults who are eligible to participate in this study are randomly given one message. For older adults, the objective is to study which message is more effective in affecting their attitude towards falls risk and motivating them to learn about preventing falls. For younger adults, the aim is to understand which message is more effective in motivating them to learn about preventing falls for their parents.

Hypotheses:

H1: The negatively framed message is more effective than the positively framed counterpart in motivating older adults to find out about preventing falls. However, this effect decreases as the socioeconomic status decreases.

H2: The negatively framed message is more effective than the positively framed counterpart in motivating younger adults to find out about preventing falls.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2021-12-07
• Study Start: 2021-12-10
• Study First Submitted QC: 2022-01-15
• Study First Posted: 2022-01-20
• Status Verified: 2022-04
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-04-06
• Last Update Posted: 2022-04-14
• Primary Completion: 2022-09-30
• Study Completion: 2022-09-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 1200

Inclusion Criteria

• Singaporean or Permanent Residents (PRs)
• Read/speak English, Mandarin, or Malay
• Either age 60 years old and above, walk independently with or without assistive devices, have no self-reported/detected dementia or cognitive impairments or age between 30 and 59 years old and have either one of the parents age 60 years old and above who walk independently with or without assistive devices

Exclusion Criteria

• Not Singaporean or PRs
• Do not read/speak English, Chinese, and Malay
• Age 29 years old and below
• Cannot walk independently with and without assistive devices
• Have self-reported/detected dementia or cognitive impairments

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Positive - Older Adults	Positive Message Given - Older Adults	Participants age 60 years old or above.
Control - Younger Adults	No Message Given	Participants age between 30 and 59 years old.
Positive - Younger Adults	Positive Message Given - Younger Adults	Participants age between 30 and 59 years old.
Negative - Younger Adults	Negative Message Given - Younger Adults	Participants age between 30 and 59 years old.
Control - Older Adults	No Message Given	Participants age 60 years old or above.
Negative - Older Adults	Negative Message Given - Older Adults	Participants age 60 years old or above.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
How much does the participant want to find out about preventing falls for himself/herself or his/her father/mother?	After being given a message during the survey, an average of 2 minutes	This is a scale variable ranging from 1 to 9, which is "1" if not at all and "9" if a lot

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Whether the participant or the participant's father/mother has fallen in the past 12 months	After being given a message during the survey, an average of 2 minutes	This is a categorical variable, which is "Yes" if the participant or the participant's father/mother has fallen in the past 12 months, "No" if not, and "Do not know" if the participant does not know whether his/her father/mother has fallen in the past 12 months
Whether the participant or the participant's father/mother is concerned about falling	After being given a message during the survey, an average of 2 minutes	This is a categorical variable, which is "Very concerned" if the participant or the participant's father/mother is very concerned about falling, "Slightly concerned" if s/he is slightly concerned about falling, "Not concerned" if s/he is not concerned about falling, and "Do not know" if the participant does not know whether his/her father/mother is concerned about falling
Whether the participant or the participant's father/mother feels like s/he is going to fall when standing or walking	After being given a message during the survey, an average of 2 minutes	This is a categorical variable, which is "Always" if the participant or the participant's father/mother always feels like s/he is going to fall when standing or walking, "Sometimes" if s/he sometimes feels like s/he is going to fall when standing or walking, "Never" if s/he never feels like s/he is going to fall when standing or walking, and "Do not know" if the participant does not know whether his/her father/mother feels like s/he is going to fall when standing or walking

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

National University of Singapore; 🇸🇬 Singapore, Singapore