Original articleReducing Risk of Falling in Older People Discharged From Hospital: A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Seated Exercises, Weight-Bearing Exercises, and Social Visits
Section snippets
Subjects and Recruitment
Inpatients from Aged Care and Rehabilitation, General Medicine and Orthopaedics Services, Royal North Shore and Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospitals, northern Sydney, Australia, were screened for eligibility by a geriatrician (C.M.V.) and approached regarding participation after leaving hospital. Eligible subjects were 65 years or older. Subjects were excluded if they had medical contraindications to exercise,12, 13 if they were cognitively impaired (Mini-Mental State Examination score <24 out of 3014
Baseline Data, Completion Rates Compliance, and Intervention Intensity
The mean age of the 180 study participants was 80±7 years (range, 65–95y), and 143 subjects (79%) were women. Table 1 provides a summary of the baseline demographics of the study population. Table 2 describes the range of diagnoses at hospital admission and corresponding lengths of stay.
When comparing the baseline results of the current study with those from the Randwick Falls and Fractures Study17, 18, 33 (a study of community-dwelling older women randomly recruited via electoral rolls in
Discussion
In this population of older people recently discharged from hospital, both SR and WB exercises greatly lowered the risk of falling, as indicated by reductions in PPA composite scores. The WB exercise intervention, however, showed additional benefits over SR in that it produced fewer musculoskeletal adverse advents and provided improvements in leaning balance measures that may afford additional protection against falling in this at-risk group.
PPA fall risk is designated mild if the score is
Conclusions
Our findings indicate that on the basis of PPA scores, in older people recently discharged from hospital, both seated and WB exercises can reduce the risk of falling. WB exercise, however, appears to provide additional improvements in leaning balance and results in fewer musculoskeletal adverse events.
Acknowledgments
We thank Lydia Au, MBBS, and Nihal Nanda, MBBS, who assisted with recruitment at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital. We also thank the research physical therapists: Susan Murray M. Gerontology, Dip.Remed.Gymnast.Recreat.Ther, Patricia Pamphlett, Dip.Phys, BA, Yoke-feng Woodley, B.Appl.Sci(Physio), Suzanne Herring, B.Appl.Sci(Physio), and Monica Adams, Dip.Phys, BA(Hons), and our research assistants, Marcella Kwan, BSc, MPH, and Anne Tiedemann, PhD.
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Supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council Prevention of Older People's Injuries Partnership in Injury; Good Age Trust; and the Geoff and Elaine Penney Research Trust at Royal North Shore Hospital.
Sponsors had no role in the study design, recruitment, data collection, analysis, or preparation of this article.
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry Number: ACTRN12605000335695.