A Hospital-Based Fall Prevention Program in the Community: Opportunities for Frail Older Adults to Participate in Ongoing Physical Activity.

Abstract

A hospital-based falls prevention program offered in the community enabled older adults to sustain participation in physical activity beyond completion of the six-week program. The participants sustained gains with the support of an interdisciplinary comprehensive falls risk assessment, individualized goal setting, group exercise and education, home visits by health professionals when needed and partnership with community agencies for follow-up exercises. Participants (n = 162) demonstrated improvement at three months in comparison with their baseline Berg Balance Scale and Falls Efficacy Scale - International confidence scores and a 55% reduction in the average number of falls. Participants' self-report validated these findings.