Clinical trial NCT03737487: Effectiveness of the Montpellier Falls Clinic in Preventing InjuRiEs
Official title: Effectiveness of the Montpellier Falls Clinic in Preventing Injuries in Older High-risk Adults
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Falls
Keywords: geriatric assessment
fear of falling
injuries
Lead sponsor: University Hospital, Montpellier
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2018-11-09
Enrollment: 160
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 65
Standard ages: OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: All patients aged 65 or older with a history in the previous year of recurrent falls, or of a fall associated with a balance, gait, or muscle strength problem referred to the Montpellier falls prevention clinic over a 11-month period

Brief summary: A falls prevention clinic opened in Montpellier (France) in 2015. The objective of the project is to evaluate whether the tailored multifactorial programme delivered in this real practice setting by a geriatrician, a podiatrist, a physiotherapist, and a occupational therapist would help prevent injuries in high-risk older patients using a 6-month pre-post intervention analysis.

Detailed description: The Montpellier falls prevention clinic is a referral-based clinic specialized in the prevention of falls and fractures among patients aged 65+ (http://www.chu-montpellier.fr/fr/crepc/). The FPC that opened in 2015 is a member of the European Commission in its European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) A2 action plan. The main mission of the clinic is to identify the underlying causes of the patients' falls, and to address modifiable risk factors in collaboration with family physicians in order to prevent injurious falls.

Based on a geriatric assessment performed by a geriatrician, a podologist, a occupational therapist, and a physiotherapist, the likely diagnoses and recommendations are notified in the medical report that is handed over to the patient or the caregiver for the patient's GP, along with the prescriptions, and sent also by mail to the GP. Recommendations remain under the GP's control with the possibility of another consultation if needed.

All patients admitted to the FPC are reassessed by phone at 3 months to register falls and injuries, and at 6 months to register falls and injuries, assess fear of falling, mobility and ability to perform activities of daily living, and satisfaction for the programme, and list proposed measures effectively applied.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

All patients aged 65 or older with a history in the previous year of recurrent falls, or of a fall associated with a balance, gait, or muscle strength problem referred to the Montpellier falls prevention clinic

Exclusion Criteria:

* patients unable to walk 3 metres with or without an assistive device
* patients expected to live for less than 6 months based on the geriatricians' expert opinion

Primary outcomes:
measure: Serious falls
timeFrame: 1 day
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Number of Participants with injurious falls
timeFrame: 1 day
measure: fear of falling: Fear of falling assessed with a questionnaire to determine the number of patients not concerned, a little concerned, quite concerned or very concerned with a fear of falling
timeFrame: 1 day
measure: mobility :Mobility assessed using a questionnaire
timeFrame: 1 day
measure: ADLs
timeFrame: 1 day
measure: satisfaction with the programme using a questionnaire
timeFrame: 1 day
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Montpellier
country: France
facility: Uhmontpellier
Study officials:
affiliation: University Hospital, Montpellier
name: hubert Blain, MD, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: