Evaluating the effectiveness of a home-based fall risk reduction program for rural community-dwelling older adults

BACKGROUND: We investigated the effectiveness of a low-cost, multifactor fall risk reduction program in a group of rural community-dwelling older adults. The goal of the program was to provide health care workers and communities with a primary prevention tool that can be used to teach seniors about fall-related risks. The long-term goal of this program is to reduce the incidence of falling among community-dwelling older adults. METHODS: Complete data were collected on 37 community-dwelling subjects, aged 67 to 90, who participated in a 10-week fall risk reduction program. The subjects were randomly assigned to an intervention group or to a control group. The intervention group received fall risk education, home-based exercise programming, nutrition counseling, and environmental hazards education. Both groups completed a variety of physiologic, psychometric, and environmental fall-related risk assessments before and after the intervention period. RESULTS: The intervention group showed statistically significant improvement in balance, bicep endurance, lower extremity power, reduction of environmental hazards, falls efficacy, and nutritious food behavior during the study period. CONCLUSIONS: The low-cost, home-based fall risk reduction program for community-dwelling older adults was effective in reducing some of the studied fall-related risk factors over a 10-week period.