Falls Prevention Evaluation and Development for Older Adults in the Community (FREDA)

Geriatric Education and Research Institute

Status

Completed

Conditions

Physical Performance

Fear of Falling

Treatments

Other: Wait-list control

Other: Exercise-based fall prevention intervention (Modified Otago Exercise Programme and Modified Stepping On Programme)

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT04788251

2020/01193

Details and patient eligibility

About

Exercise-based fall prevention programmes with strength and balance components have been shown to reduce the rate of falls, risk of falling, fractures and injuries. However, there is little evidence on the implementation of these programmes in real-world settings.

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of exercise-based fall prevention interventions on fall risk (physical performance and fear of falling) among community-dwelling older adults who are at risk of falling in Singapore. A secondary aim is to assess the effectiveness of the programme on other health outcomes. The study will also evaluate the programme implementation from 3 perspectives of older adults, implementers and community partners.

Full description

Two exercise-based fall prevention programmes (Otago Exercise Programme, OEP and the Stepping On Programme, SOP) have been shown to be effective to prevent and reduce falls in primarily non-Asian settings. The Otago Exercise Programme is a single component intervention that has been shown to reduce fall rate among older adults by 35%. The OEP is a group-based exercise programme based on strength and balance components. The Stepping-On Programme is a multi-component intervention that has been shown to reduce fall rate by 30%. The SOP consists of group-based series of weekly sessions to teach fall prevention strategies to community-dwelling older adults. Sessions comprise of strength-balance exercises and classes based on adult learning principles.

However, there is little evidence of the effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability of locally-adapted community fall prevention interventions. Furthermore, studies on the effectiveness of fall prevention interventions among Asian populations are less robust due to the lack of well-designed studies with adequately powered sample sizes.

In this study, exercise-based fall prevention programmes will be implemented based on geographic region where participants living in the North region will receive the modified SOP and participants in the Central region will receive the modified OEP.

Enrollment

68 patients

Sex

All

Ages

60 to 99 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Aged 60 years and above
Lives in the community
Living in the Central or North region of Singapore
Singaporean or Singapore Permanent Resident
Understand conversational English or Chinese
Able to walk independently in the community with or without assistive devices (Defined as single-point walking aid, e.g. umbrella, cane, walking stick)
Answered 'Yes' to any of 3 falls risk screening questions (i.e. 1. Did you have a fall in the past 12 months?, 2. Are you concerned about falling?, 3. Do you feel like you are going to fall when getting up or walking?)

Exclusion criteria

Currently participating in other falls prevention programme or trial or participated in a fall prevention programme or trial in the past 3 months
Has chest pains when doing exercise
Had a recent major surgery less than 3 months or is undergoing renal dialysis or active cancer treatment
Has been told by a doctor to have the following medical conditions: Dementia, Severe neuromuscular or cardiovascular conditions i.e. stroke in the past 6 months, heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, Parkinson's disease
Have been told by a doctor not to exercise due to health issues
Score of less than 7 on the Abbreviated Mental Test (AMT)