Falls Self-Management Interventions for People with Parkinson's Disease: A Systematic Review

Falls are common in Parkinson's disease (PD). Increased involvement of people with Parkinson's (PwP) in their care has been associated with enhanced satisfaction. Self-management programmes in other long-term conditions (LTCs) have led to improvements in physical and psychological outcomes. These have been more effective when targeted toward a specific behavior.

This paper aimed to identify and review falls self-management interventions for PwP.

A systematic review was conducted. Electronic databases were searched in June 2018. Primary research studies (any design) reporting the delivery of falls self-management interventions to PwP were included. Data was extracted from each article and synthesised narratively.

Six articles were identified, relating to five different self-management interventions. All described a self-management intervention delivered alongside physiotherapy. Intervention delivery was through either group discussion (n = 3) or falls booklets (n = 3). Interventions were often incompletely described; the most common components were information about the condition, training/ rehearsal for psychological strategies and lifestyle advice and support. Arising from the design of articles included the effects of self-management and physiotherapy could not be separated. Three articles measured falls, only one led to a reduction. Four articles measured quality of life, only one led to improvement. No articles assessed skill acquisition or adherence to the self-management intervention.

Few falls self-management interventions for PwP have been evaluated and reported. The components of an effective intervention remain unclear. Given the benefits of self-management interventions in other LTCs, it is important that falls self-management interventions are developed and evaluated to support PwP.