[Fall prevention strategy for elderly women wishing to attend community fall prevention programs]

Fall prevention programs for community-dwelling elderly people are carried out as part of disability-postponing programs in Japanese municipalities. This study examined how to design a fall prevention program for community health fair based on the characteristics of fall prevention strategies adopted by community-dwelling elderly women before attending community fall prevention programs.

One hundred and four community-dwelling elderly women (71.7 +/- 6.3 years old) who were attending community fall prevention programs for the first time were asked about their strategies for fall prevention. Age, regular attendance at outpatient programs, the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Index, and Timed Up&Go were determined as factors related to whether or not the women had strategies for fall prevention.

Sixty-four participants had their own strategies for fall prevention. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that age (OR = 1.10, 95% CI:1.00-1.21) and regular attendance at outpatient programs (OR = 4.77, 95% CI:1.75-12.98) were significantly related to having fall prevention strategies. Timed Up&Go (OR = 1.42, 95% CI: 0.95-2.13) had a weak relationship to having such strategies (P = 0.085). The most common strategy was behavior such as lifting the toe when walking (n=38, 59.4%), followed by doing regular exercise (n=16, 25.0%). Few of the participants modified their environment (n=2, 3.1%).

Community fall prevention programs for community-dwelling elderly women can motivate participants to develop interdisciplinary and comprehensive practices for fall prevention.