Health beliefs and adherence of the elderly to fall prevention measures: a quasi-experimental study

To evaluate the effect of an educational intervention on health beliefs and adherence of elderly people to fall prevention measures.

This is a quasi-experimental study, carried out at the Senior Citizens' Center. Sixty-eight elderly completed the intervention. The intervention consisted of four meetings focused on beliefs about falls and prevention, and the evaluation occurred at baseline and 30 days after completion.

The elderly were predominantly women (83.82%), with one to four years of schooling (36.76%), with health problems (95.59%), and 48.53% had fallen. There was a significant increase in perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, and total health belief score post educational intervention. By adding total to partial adherence, there was a significant increase in the adherence of the elderly to fall prevention measures after the educational intervention.

Educational intervention was able to improve the beliefs and adherence of the elderly to fall prevention measures.