THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FALL PREVENTION PROGRAM IN ELDERLY AT PRIMARY CARE CLUSTER BAN NONG MEK, SUWANNAPHUM DISTRICT, ROI-ET PROVINCE

Abstract

Falls are one of the major public health problems, ranging from minor injuries to death, especially among the elderly. This research is a quasi-experimental, two-group pretest-posttest study aimed to study the effectiveness of a fall prevention program for the elderly in the community.
The participants were elderly over 60 years old, with Thai FRAT score equal to or more than 4 points. 26 elders in the experimental group underwent a fall prevention program for 12 weeks and 23 elders in the control group received the usual care program. The number of falls and Time up and go test were recorded to compare them between both groups at the beginning of the study and 6 months after finishing the program.

The results showed that after the end of the program, both groups had a lower number of fall events and Time up and go tests compared to the beginning. In between groups, there were statistically significant differences in the mean change of fall events and in the mean change of Time up andgo tests (0.527; 95% CI = 0.112-0.941; p-value = 0.015 and 2.458; 95% CI = 0.093-4.823; p-value = 0.042 for fall events and time up and go tests, respectively). This study indicates that the fall prevention program was beneficial for reducing fall events and time spent on Time up and go test so it should be promoted and used further.