[Design an educational intervention to prevent falls of older people in social housing: description of a research...

In a social environment in which prevention of falls in older people has become a public health issue, adaptation of housing for older people is particularly important. Based on the home-identity concept, the objective of this research was to design an educational model specifically adapted to the context of a Social Housing Company (SHC), focussing on elderly tenants who have experienced a fall in order to allow them to adapt their lodgings and avoid subsequent falls.

This article describes design-based research (DBR), which enabled the research committee (composed of professionals, tenants, and researchers) to construct the educational intervention based on analysis of the SHC context.

The creation of a common approach within the research committee and the production of design-linked intentions enabled the creation of a formal intervention composed of four educational sessions, involving a private occupational therapist, an SHC social worker and a caretaker.

The use of DBR can be justified by the research goal, i.e. validation of an educational model (based on the theoretical home-identity model) that can be transposed to a SHC. As this research is still underway, its quality criteria will only be partially described and will be completed by field experimentation.

This exploratory study could eventually result in interventional research designed to assess this model in a multifactorial therapeutic patient education programme for older people at high risk of falls (e.g.: Personnes Âgées En Risque de Perte d'Autonomie device).