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.