A Low-Cost Intervention to Prevent Falls in Active Older Women

Abstract

One-third of the elderly population falls one or more times annually. Older adults are more susceptible to falling and are more susceptible to serious injury. Falls are the greatest killer of those 75 years of age and older. Additionally, active older women, compared to active older men, are more likely to fall and are twice as likely to experience serious injury from a fall. Methods used to prepare individuals to avoid falls—from an economic point with no consideration for the emotional cost—are breakeven at best when comparing the cost of preventing a fall to the medical costs of a resultant fall. This paper reports on a 10-month intervention study of 121 women, 65 years of age and older, to determine whether a low-cost repetitive intervention consisting of visualization and repetition would decrease the occurrence of falls. In the study, the number of falls in the treatment group, excluding repeat fallers, was less (11%) than the control group although not to a level of statistical significance. Nevertheless, benefits were gained from the study. The women almost exclusively reported that their awareness to hazardous situations was heightened by the study and some reported changing their approach to hazardous situations in order to decrease their exposure to harm. There is some indication that to be most effective, a fall intervention program should be ongoing to the extent as permitted by economic considerations. Suggestions for future study are included.