The impact of therapeutic patient education and physical activity programs on the fall risk of elderly people

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a combined therapeutic education/physical activity program on risk factors for falls in elderly fall patients hospitalized in a rehabilitation healthcare service. This combined program is compared to a control program, which offers physical activity only. Method: Thirty fall patients are evaluated on the TUG, Tinetti, and FES-I tests and randomly assigned either to the group consisting of 24 sessions of physical activity alone, with endurance, stretching, balance and muscle strengthening exercises, or to the physical activity group combined with four therapeutic fall prevention education sessions. Results: For both programs, results reveal significant differences between the pre-tests and post-tests on each balance score and equally on fear of falling. An interaction effect (group × time) is observed on the FES only, which means that fear of falling decreases significantly more in the Physical Activity and Patient Education group than in the Physical Activity alone group. Conclusion: Therapeutic patient education seems to reduce fear of falling. This highlights the potential impact that such programs could have on elderly people who have had a previous fall/falls in terms of regaining self-confidence when going about their daily activities.