Elderly people at risk of falling: do they want to be taught how to get up again?

Abstract

The purpose of this multicentre, prospective study was to examine the reactions of elderly people at risk of falling to being taught how to get up from the floor. Physiotherapists working in geriatric medicine units (five day units, 18 wards across 12 hospitals) identified a total of 552 potential fallers (44% of all patients available during the study period). Of these people, 105 (19.0%) were capable of being taught how to get up again, (mean age 83.5; SD 5.0, range 64-96). Sixty-six patients (63%) agreed to be taught, 24 (23%) refused and 15 (14%) reluctantly agreed. Willingness to be taught was not related to age, memory test score or time spent on the floor after the last fall but was related to patients' confidence in their own ability to get up again (chi-square 7.54; p = 0.023). This confidence was unrelated to subsequent practical performance.

Although two-thirds of the elderly people who were fit to learn how to get up from the floor were willing to do so, most of those who refused or only reluctantly agreed were not facing up to their risk of falling. Besides taking measures to prevent further falls, all people at risk should have their coping strategies checked, and where necessary helped to confront this problem and rehearsed in how to cope with a fall should it occur.