Interventions to Reduce Fear of Falling in Community-living Older People: a Systematic Review.
From: Department of Health Care Studies, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands. R.Zijlstra@zw.unimaas.nl
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
- Publish Date: Apr 2007
- ISSN: 0002-8614
- Volume: 55
- Issue: 4
- Pages: 603-15
- Medium: Print
- Language: English
- Citation (JAMA): Zijlstra G A Rixt, van Haastregt Jolanda C M, van Rossum Erik, et al. Interventions to Reduce Fear of Falling in Community-living Older People: a Systematic Review.. Apr 2007;55:603-15
Abstract
The objective was to assess which interventions effectively reduce fear of falling in community-living older people. An extensive search for relevant literature comprised a database search of PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials; expert consultation; and manually searching reference lists from potentially relevant papers. Randomized, controlled trials that assessed fear of falling in community-living older people were included. Two independent reviewers extracted data from full papers on study characteristics, methodological quality, outcomes, and process characteristics of the intervention. The search identified 599 abstracts, and 19 papers met the inclusion criteria. Seven of those papers were identified using expert consultation. Fifty-five percent of all validity items and 39% of process characteristic items were fulfilled across the 19 trials. Twelve of the 19 papers were of higher methodological quality. In 11 of these trials, fear of falling was lower in the intervention group than in the control group. Interventions that showed effectiveness were fall-related multifactorial programs (n=5), tai chi interventions (n=3), exercise interventions (n=2), and a hip protector intervention (n=1). Three of these interventions explicitly aimed to reduce fear of falling. Several interventions, including interventions not explicitly aimed at fear of falling, resulted in a reduction of fear of falling in community-living older people. Limited but fairly consistent findings in trials of higher methodological quality showed that home-based exercise and fall-related multifactorial programs and community-based tai chi delivered in group format have been effective in reducing fear of falling in community-living older people.
Mesh Headings (Keywords): Accidental Falls, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Exercise Movement Techniques, Fear, Geriatrics, Humans, Middle Aged, Musculoskeletal Equilibrium, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Risk Factors, Self Efficacy
Check for Full Text / PubMed Unique Identifier (PMID): 17397441
This abstract is part of PubMed, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. PubMed includes more than 17 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles. See Copyright and Disclaimers.
Linked medical terms appearing on this page are added by Healia to help readers find more information and are not part of the original PubMed document.
The data herein was last updated on July 8th, 2008 and may not reflect the most current and accurate data available from NLM.