A Trial Evaluating Community Pharmacist-led Older Adult Fall Prevention Program

The fall prevention intervention administered by the community pharmacists involves screening, fall education, and medication review. A tabletop Flipchart will aid pharmacist education sessions, and participants will receive a booklet with information on fall prevention. These materials were created and validated specifically for this trial. A medication review form will be developed to aid pharmacists during the medication review session. If needed for any intervention, pharmacists will make a referral to the primary healthcare provider using a standardised referral form. Participants will also receive a fall calendar for them to take note of any falls at home. At baseline, eligible participants will have to answer 4 self-administered questionnaires (demographic questionnaire, Fall Risk Assessment Questionnaire, Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire and Perspective of Fall Prevention Engagement Questionnaire). Participants will then be screened for fall risk with CDC-3 screening questions and given fall education by the study pharmacists. This should take approximately 30 minutes. Within one week, participants must bring their medications for review by pharmacists. This medication review session would take approximately 20 minutes. During the medication review, pharmacist can discuss and further educate participants on their medications in relation to falls. The intervention will be administered only at baseline. The intervention will be administered individually and in-person in rural and urban community pharmacies nationwide. The intervention will be delivered by registered pharmacists working in the community pharmacy setting who will be specifically trained in fall prevention and data-gathering techniques using a validated training module. The training is designed specifically for this community pharmacist-led fall prevention intervention which will be offered through a workshop. The participants will be required to return to the pharmacy twice for follow-up at one month and six months, but no additional intervention will be administered at these visits. During this visit, participants will be require to complete post-intervention questionnaires for the study and this take approximately 15 minutes. The same questionnaires will be given as before the intervention. At 6-month, participants will return back their fall calendars to the pharmacy. The intervention fidelity will be evaluated by an audit of the checklist developed to document each step involved in the community pharmacist's delivery of the intervention.