Falls prevention in residential care homes: a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

falls risk factor reduction is possible in residents of care homes. A modest reduction in falls rates was demonstrated but this failed to reach statistical significance.

Effectiveness of multifaceted fall-prevention programs for the elderly in residential care

“…Dyer et al 15 noted that the relatively high intracluster correlation coefficient in their study might be linked to its low statistical power. The intracluster correlation coefficient measures how similarly residents within a cluster are behaving and therefore how much of the behavior is attributed to the cluster, in this case the nursing home, as opposed to the intervention program.…”

“…The other three studies defined recurrent fallers to be residents who sustained three or more falls during the follow-up period 14 15 16…”

“…Dyer et al 15 commented that marked differences in the philosophy of residential care homes (to provide care or promote autonomy) may have a significant effect on the degree of enforcement of the multifaceted programs and therefore may have influenced outcomes.…”

Falls Risk in Older Adults with Type 2 Diabetes

“…Similarly, reduction of psychotropic medications and polypharmacy has been shown to also result in a reduced fall rate. 8,20,57,65,66 Depression is another cognitive factor commonly associated with falls and diabetes because of increased activity avoidance and the prescription of psychotropic medications to treat this disorder. 8,20,57,59 Furthermore, the delicacy of electrolyte balance in older people and the use of diuretics and other drugs causing hyponatremia (serum sodium <135 mmol/L) are increasingly recognized as risk factors.…”

Fractures after nursing home admission: incidence and potential consequences

“…There is evidence that some interventions may be effective in preventing falls in nursing home residents although the strength of evidence is limited and mixed [6,7]. With the exception of one trial from Sweden [8], randomised studies have failed to demonstrate a beneficial effect of fall prevention interventions on fall-related fractures in nursing homes [9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. identify promising approaches.…”