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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Are older adults receiving evidence-based advice to prevent falls post-discharge from hospital? | | Author(s) | Den-Ching A Lee, Ted Brown, Rene Stolwyk |
| Journal title | Health Education Journal, vol 75, no 4, June 2016 |
| Publisher | Sage, June 2016 |
| Pages | pp 448-463 |
| Source | hej.sagepub.com |
| Keywords | Falls ; Accident prevention ; General hospitals ; Discharged patients ; Living in the community ; Advisory services [elderly] ; Evaluation. |
| Annotation | Older adults experience a high rate of falls when they transition to community living following discharge from hospital. The objective of this study was to describe the proportion of older adults who could recall having discussed falls and falls prevention strategies with a health professional within six months following discharge from hospital. A secondary objective was to describe the recalled content of those discussions and the strategies recommended and/or undertaken to prevent falls. Study participants were a prospective cohort study of 155 older adults surveyed prior to discharge from hospital, of whom 123 were followed up at month 3 and/or month 6 in the community post-discharge. Participants were recruited from three Australian hospitals. Questionnaires captured predictive factors that may predispose to a fall and data related to the objectives being examined. Of the 123 participants who had at least one follow-up, 54 reported discussing falls with a health professional (49 discussed falls with their general practitioners). Of the 54 participants who recalled having a discussion, 33 commented that they were asked whether they had fallen over. Only six discussed interventions to prevent falls. However 44 stated that they attempted a total of 53 strategies to prevent falls post-discharge. Of these strategies, 40 had an absence of evidence of effectiveness, 11 had evidence of effectiveness, while two had either evidence of no benefit/harm or evidence of harm for the prevention of falls. In all, 53 participants reported falling post-discharge but 42% of them did not recall discussing falls with their health professional. There is considerable scope for health professionals, especially general practitioners, to increase the frequency with which they discuss falls and evidence-based interventions to prevent falls in this population. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-160624210 A |
| Classmark | OLF: OQ: LD3: LFD: K4: IT: 4C |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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