Effectiveness of preventive home visits in reducing the risk of falls in old age: a randomized controlled trial.
Clin Interv Aging
; 8: 697-702, 2013.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-23788832
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Falls in older people are a major public health issue, but the underlying causes are complex. We sought to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive home visits as a multifactorial, individualized strategy to reduce falls in community-dwelling older people.METHODS:
Data were derived from a prospective randomized controlled trial with follow-up examination after 18 months. Two hundred and thirty participants (≥80 years of age) with functional impairment were randomized to intervention and control groups. The intervention group received up to three preventive home visits including risk assessment, home counseling intervention, and a booster session. The control group received no preventive home visits. Structured interviews at baseline and follow-up provided information concerning falls in both study groups. Random-effects Poisson regression evaluated the effect of preventive home visits on the number of falls controlling for covariates.RESULTS:
Random-effects Poisson regression showed a significant increase in the number of falls between baseline and follow-up in the control group (incidence rate ratio 1.96) and a significant decrease in the intervention group (incidence rate ratio 0.63) controlling for age, sex, family status, level of care, and impairment in activities of daily living.CONCLUSION:
Our results indicate that a preventive home visiting program can be effective in reducing falls in community-dwelling older people.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Accidental Falls
/
Geriatric Assessment
/
House Calls
Type of study:
Clinical_trials
/
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Qualitative_research
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Aged80
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Clin Interv Aging
Journal subject:
GERIATRIA
Year:
2013
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Germany