The Effects of a Fall Prevention Program on the Low-Income Elderly at Risk of Falls

Il Seon Hyeon; Myonghwa Park; Kyong Min Park; Chung Nam Kim

doi:10.12799/jkachn.2010.21.2.200

Journal List > J Korean Acad Community Health Nurs > v.21(2) > 1058164

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Hyeon, Park, Park, and Kim: The Effects of a Fall Prevention Program on the Low-Income Elderly at Risk of Falls

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing 2010; 21(2): 200-209.

Published online: 4 April 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12799/jkachn.2010.21.2.200

The Effects of a Fall Prevention Program on the Low-Income Elderly at Risk of Falls

Il Seon Hyeon¹, Myonghwa Park², Kyong Min Park³, Chung Nam Kim³

¹Head Nurse, Youngnam University, Yeongcheon Hospital, Korea.

²Associate Professor, College of Nursing, Keimyung University, Korea.

³Professor, College of Nursing, Keimyung University, Korea.

Address reprint requests to: Park, Myonghwa, College of Nursing, Keimyung University, 2800 Dalgubeoldaero, Dalseo-gu, Daegu 704-701, Korea. Tel: 82-10-5130-6859, Fax: 82-53-580-3916, mhpark1@kmu.ac.kr

Received 19 April 2010 Revised 17 June 2010 Accepted 18 June 2010

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

This study was conducted to determine the effects of a fall prevention program on knowledge, efficacy, and prevention behavior of falls among the low-income elderly.

Methods

This study used a nonequivalent control group pre and post test quasi-experimental research design. The study was conducted from August to October, 2008 with 20 subjects in the experimental group and 22 in the control group who were registered at the public health center of S District in D City.

Results

Hypothesis 1 "The experimental group that participated in the fall prevention program will show a higher degree of knowledge about falls than the control group" was supported. Hypothesis 2 "The experimental group will have a higher degree of self-efficacy of falls than the control group" was not supported. Hypothesis 3 "The experimental group will report fall prevention behavior more frequently than the control group" was supported.

Conclusion

It was verified that the fall prevention program in this study was an effective intervention to improve knowledge about falls and fall prevention behaviors among the low-income elderly. The results can be used as part of an intervention to prevent falls for the vulnerable elderly such as the low-income elderly.

Keywords: Elderly, Accidental falls, Knowledge, Self efficacy, Prevention

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Overview of Fall Prevention Program

Table 2

Homogeneity Test of General Characteristics (N=42)

Exp.=experimental group; Cont.=control group.

Table 3

Homogeneity Test of Health Related Characteristics (N=42)

Exp.=experimental group; Cont.=control group.

Table 4

Homogeneity Test of Fall Risk (N=42)

Exp.=experimental group; Cont.=control group.

Table 5

Homogeneity Test in Knowledge, Self-efficacy, and Prevention behavior of Falls (N=42)

Exp.=experimental group; Cont.=control group.

Table 6

Differences in Fall Knowledge, Self-efficacy, and Prevention behavior between Experimental and Control Group (N=42)

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