Clinical trial NCT00804492: Establishment of an Integrated Model for Prevention of Elderly Falls
Official title: Bureau of Health Promotion,Department of Health, R.O.C. (Taiwan)
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Falls
Keywords: To organize a multidisciplinary team for integrated falls prevention
To draft a guideline for falls prevention in the elderly
To set up a multidisciplinary fall clinic
To set up a falls prevention classroom
To enhance cooperate between hospitals and primary care units for falls prevention
Lead sponsor: National Taiwan University Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2008-12-08
Enrollment: 900
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 65
Standard ages: OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Falls, with a high prevalence, high risk and consequent medical and social costs, are an important issue for medical care and health promotion in the elderly. The prevalence of falls in the elderly lies in between 10-20%. Falls have become the second leading cause of death from injury for the elderly in Taiwan. A community-based study showed that, among those old adults after a fall, 27.3% were severely injured, 53.9% got a minor injury, and only 18.9% remained intact. Another study revealed that among fall injury events reported, 42% were hospitalized, of whom 2.2% died in hospital, and 37% entered nursing homes after discharge from hospital. In addition to physical discomfort, half of the elderly fallers would become disabled, and bring a heavy burden of social economy and family care. It was estimated that there were 460 thousand of old people who had a fall, and 125 thousand of them were injured in Taiwan, 2007. Research evidence shows that falls prevention is effective and feasible. Although primary falls prevention programs have been conducted at the community level and extended to 25 counties and cities for many years, they were not integrated with secondary and tertiary prevention. The study aims to establish an integrated fall prevention model, combined with primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. The model will be practiced in participating hospitals and communities, with a randomized control trial (RCT) design to examine its feasibility and effectiveness. Our study subjects are persons aged 65 and over who live in communities, go to out-patient departments (OPD) or emergency room (ER) care.

Tasks for implementation

1. To organize a multidisciplinary team for integrated falls prevention.
2. To draft a guideline for falls prevention in the elderly.
3. To set up a multidisciplinary fall clinic.
4. To set up a falls prevention classroom.
5. To enhance cooperate between hospitals and primary care units to fulfill the guideline for falls prevention in the elderly.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Old people (65 years old or more)
* With at least one fall in the past one year, or with disease related to fall, such as central nerve system disease or lower extrimity fracture

Exclusion Criteria:

* The result of screening test is "no fall risk"
* Cannot be followed for 6 months
* Cannot be evaluated because of the mental status
* Cannot have the exercise intervention
* Falling due to expected reason, such as suffering heart atteck

Primary outcomes:
measure: The number and severity of fall
timeFrame: once per month for 6 monthes
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Taipei
country: Taiwan
facility: Jau-Yih Tsauo
Study officials:
affiliation: National Taiwan University Hospital
name: Jau-Yih Tsauo
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: