Accidental Falls, Activities of Daily Living, Quality of Life, Self-Efficacy
Conditions
Keywords
Falls, Nursing Homes, Elderly, Prevention, Spain, Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial
Brief summary
The aim of the study is to establish the impact of a falls screening questionnaire in the adoption of preventive interventions and eventually in the reduction of falls and its consequences in elder people living in nursing homes.
Detailed description
Falls are the most frequent accidents in nursing homes, affecting more than a third of residents each year. Up to 10% of fallers require hospitalization or suffer a fracture. Psychological consequences affects between 20 and 80% of fallers, which suffer a lack of self-confidence that leads to reduction of activities and an increase of the dependence in activities of daily living. Not all the residents have the same risk, and each person can have more than one risk factor that can be identified (previous falls, self confidence, weakness, gait disorders, dizziness, cognitive impairment, etc). Identification of risk factors is the first step to reduce falls, but is not enough by itself. For this reason, interventions directed towards the correction of identified risk factors are required. In this setting, multifactorial interventions are the most successful to reduce falls numbers and its consequences. As individual randomization of residents presents important inconveniences (group contamination, control arm residents could felt discriminated), we will randomized nursing homes to each group.
Interventions
OTHERFall risk assessment
Assessment of presence of risk factors (previous falls, self efficacy, balance and gait disorders, weakness, daily living impairment, limb pain, foot problems, dizziness, cognitive impairment, vision impairment, depression, urinary incontinence, heart disease, polimedication and consumption of neuroleptics and psychotropic medication)
Induction of an intervention for each identified risk factor. If is possible the intervention will be directed towards the treatment of the underlying cause.
Sponsors
Fondo de Investigacion Sanitaria
Sociedad Española de Geriatría y Gerontología
Fundacio Salut i Envelliment UAB
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
65 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* People with or without cognitive impairment living indefinitely in a nursing home place * Able to walk with or without any kind of help or able to self transfer (as defined in category d420 of the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) without help * Give their consent (or the legal guardian in case of cognitive impairment).
Exclusion criteria
* Terminal illness (expected death before 6 months). * Occupying temporarily a nursing home place (convalescence period) or another kind of place(day center, long term care, etc).
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of fallers | one year | People who at least have one fall during the follow-up period. Fall:unexpected event in which the participants come to rest on the ground, floor, or lower level |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of falls | one year | Number of falls per person/time. |
| Number of people who has a fracture as a consequence of a fall | one year | — |
| Quality of life (only in residents without cognitive impairment). | One year | — |
| Activities of daily living | One year | — |
Countries
Spain
Outcome results
None listed