The Effect of Fall-Prevention Multimedia Training on the Fear of Falling, Home Safety, and the Quality of Life in Older Adults: A Randomized, Parallel, Controlled Trial

Background: Falling is a common aging-associated problem. Over one-third of older adults have experienced at least one episode of falling, and its prevalence increases with age. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the effect of fall-prevention multimedia training on the fear of falling, home safety, and the quality of life in older adults presenting to a designated healthcare center. Methods: Design: Parallel, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial. Setting: The orthopedic outpatient clinic of Dena Hospital in Shiraz, Fars province, Iran. Participants: 100 older adults, including 50 randomly allocated to the intervention group (multimedia training) and 50 to the control group (standard teaching) by permuted block randomization. Measurements: For data collection, a demographic information form, the fear of falling inventory, the home falls and accidents screening tool (HOME FAST), and LEIPAD (an instrument for assessing the quality of life in older adults) were completed before and three months after the intervention. The level of significance was set at 0.05. Results: The comparison of the pre-and post-intervention scores of the three assessed outcomes between the study groups showed a significant difference between the mean scores of home safety before and after the intervention (P < 0.001) in the intervention group; however, there were no significant differences in the scores of fear of falling (P = 0.30) and quality of life (P = 0.32). In the control group, there were no statistically significant differences in the mean scores of the three outcomes before and after the intervention. Calculating the standardized mean difference revealed the significant effect of the intervention on home safety (Cohen’s d = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.43 - 1.3). Conclusions: Given the potential effectiveness of multimedia training in the improvement of older adults’ fear of falling and quality of life, especially concerning home safety, this type of training should be emphasized in future educational programs.