Falls in older people Injury, Occupational Diseases, Poisoning
Conditions
Interventions
Usability testing has already been carried out to assess whether the technology is usable and acceptable to both health professionals and patients. Following the Medical Research Council's guidance fo
Sponsors
The University of Manchester
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. Older adults at risk of falls 2. Older adults aged 50+ 3. Older adults assessed as requiring a falls exercise programme 4. Identified through current community falls rehabilitation services in both Central Manchester and Pennine Care NHS Trust (Trafford Community Services) 5. Good 3G/4G reception in their home or wifi available
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Older adults who are unable to follow instructions (unless they have support from a family member or carer) 2. Older adults who are unable to read written English (unless they have support from a family member or carer) 3. Severe visual impairment 4. Long-term residential or nursing care or expected shortened lifespan, defined as less than 6 months
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| The feasibility and acceptability of the design and procedures including: 1. Willingness of participants to be randomised (selected to go into either the intervention or control group) 2. Willingness of clinicians to recruit participants 3. Number of eligible patients 4. Characteristics of the proposed outcome measures e.g. reliability of falls detector, Instrumented Timed up and Go 5. Follow-up rates, adherence/compliance rates 6. Time needed to collect and analyse data 7. Determine effect sizes for use in sample-size calculations at 3 months and 6 months., enabling power calculations for the reduction in falls for a definitive large scale RCT (allowing the trialists to estimate how many patients need to be recruited to show a difference between the standard service and the intervention) This will be assessed through data collected on the CRF and through interviews (at 6 months). | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Measured at at baseline, 3, and 6 months: 1. Falls: The primary outcome for any future definitive trial would be falls, expressed as the fall rate per person per months of follow-up. For this study falls will be detected via the falls alarm. All participants will wear the smartphone in their pocket or on a waistband and this will act as a falls detector. This will be used as an outcome measure for the study. If the patient chooses then they can also use the app on the phone as a falls alarm. The fall detection system application allows the user to identify a list of formal/informal caregivers who will receive an SMS if a fall is detected. Patients are given an opportunity to de-active the falls alarm through an application on the smartphone if there is a false alarm, enabling the user to maintain control and prevent unwanted intrusion. Data collected through the smartphone will be downloaded from the phone at the end of the intervention period. Participants will be asked if we can use their anonymised falls data for further development of the app and in the Farseeing real-world falls database (http://farseeingresearch.eu/the-farseeing-real-world-fall-repository-a-large-scale-collaborative-database-to-collect-and-share-sensor-signals-from-real-world-falls/). However, to validate this as an outcome measure the trialists will also use the internationally agreed ProFaNE falls definition (Lamb et al 2005). Patients are asked to record falls as they happen on a falls calendar completed daily and returned by mail monthly. If a person does not return their fall calendar, they are telephoned to determine whether they have fallen and if they report a fall they are contacted to record the circumstances of fall, whether any injuries occurred and whether any help was sought as a result of the fall. 2. Fear of falling, measured using the Short Falls Efficacy Scale-International (Short FES-1) (Kempen et al., 2008). This is a measure often used by U | — |
Countries
England, United Kingdom
Outcome results
None listed