Centre for Policy on Ageing



Preventing falls in older people — outcome evaluation of a randomized controlled trial
Author(s)	Margaret Stevens, C D'Arcy J Holman, Nicole Bennett
Journal title	Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 49, no 11, November 2001
Pages	pp 1448-1455
Keywords	Falls ; Hazards ; Domestic accidents ; Accident prevention ; Living in the community ; Longitudinal surveys ; Evaluation ; Australia.
Annotation	As part of a community-based domestic safety study of 1,829 over 70s in Perth Western Australia, this article evaluates trial results over one year. 570 intervention subjects were offered a home hazard assessment, information on hazard reduction, and the installation of safety devices, whereas 1,167 controls did not. The intervention failed to achieve a reduction in the occurrence of falls. This was most likely because the strategies had a limited effect on the number of hazards in intervention subjects' homes. The study provides evidence that a one-time intervention programme of education, hazard assessment and home modifications to reduce fall hazards in the homes of healthy older people is not an effective strategy for the prevention of falls for older people in general. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-011210215 A
Classmark	OLF: OK7: OL: OQ: K4: 3J: 4C: 7YA
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.