Educational actions and group physiotherapy on the risk of falls in the older adults: A randomized clinical trial

The objective was to analyze the effect of educational actions and group physical therapy on the risk of falls in the older adults.

A clinical trial was carried out approximately three months with older adults aged 60 years or older. The participants were randomized into two groups: physiotherapy (GF) and educational actions and physiotherapy (GEF) and all were evaluated before and after the interventions with the instruments: Falls Efficacy Scale (FES), Berg Balance Scale (BERG), Timed Up and Go (TUG), Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) and Falls Risk Awareness Questionnaire (FRAQ-Brazil). Both groups were submitted to physiotherapeutic intervention and the GEF group participated in educational actions. The evaluation team and the statistician remained blinded throughout the study. The statistical analysis used the Chi-square test, mean, standard deviation and median, Box-Cox test, Mann-Whitney, and Wilcoxon. ANOVA with repeated measures was performed followed by Bonferroni's Post-Hoc test. The significance level (α) adopted was 5%.

Eighty individuals were invited. Six were excluded, leaving 74 participants, they were randomized and allocated, 37 individuals to each group. A sample loss of 23 participants occurred. The final sample was 51 participants (GF n=25 and GEF n=26). In the Berg performance, there was a significant difference after reevaluation for both groups. In FRAQ and TUG performance there was a significant difference only for the GEF(p<0.05). No effect was verified for the performance of FES and HAQ.

The physical therapy intervention is effective in improving balance and the educational approach improves the perception and knowledge about falls and functional mobility capacity.