Evaluation of Implementing a Home-Based Fall Prevention Program among Community-Dwelling Older Adults

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 16; no. 6; p. 1079
• Main Authors: Olij, Branko F, Erasmus, Vicki, Barmentloo, Lotte M, Burdorf, Alex, Smilde, Dini, Schoon, Yvonne, van der Velde, Nathalie, Polinder, Suzanne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 26.03.2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Accidental Falls - prevention & control; Adults; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Apartments; Community centers; Dementia; Exercise Therapy; Falls; Female; Humans; Independent Living; Injury prevention; Intervention; Male; Meetings; Nurses; Older people; Population studies; Prevention; Program Evaluation; Questionnaires; Research projects; Retailing industry; Shopping malls; Software; Studies; Walking; Workshops; United States > US; Netherlands; accidental falls; aged; independent living; exercise; prevention and control; implementation science
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16061079

We aimed to describe and evaluate the implementation of a home-based exercise program among community-dwelling adults aged ≥65 years. In an observational study, the twelve-week program was implemented in a community setting. The implementation plan consisted of dialogues with healthcare professionals and older adults, development of an implementation protocol, recruitment of participants, program implementation, and implementation evaluation. The dialogues consisted of a Delphi survey among healthcare professionals, and of individual and group meetings among older adults. The implementation of the program was evaluated using the framework model RE-AIM. In the dialogues with healthcare professionals and older adults, it was found that negative consequences of a fall and positive effects of preventing a fall should be emphasized to older adults, in order to get them engaged in fall prevention activities. A total of 450 older adults enrolled in the study, of which 238 started the program. The process evaluation showed that the majority of older adults were recruited by a community nurse. Also, a good collaboration between the research team and the local primary healthcare providers was accomplished, which was important in the recruitment. Future fall prevention studies may use this information in order to translate an intervention in a research project into a community-based program.