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Therapeutics
A home-based, nurse-delivered exercise programme reduced falls and serious injuries in people ≥ 80 years of age

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebm.6.6.182

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    (2001) BMJ 322, 697. Robertson MC, Devlin N, Gardner MM, Campbell AJ.. Effectiveness and economic evaluation of a nurse delivered home exercise programme to prevent falls. 1: randomised controlled trial.. Mar 24;. :. –701.
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 QUESTION: In people ≥ 75 years of age, is a home-based exercise programme that includes strength and balance retraining delivered by a nurse effective for reducing falls and related injuries?

    Design

    Randomised {allocation concealed*}†, blinded (outcome assessors),* controlled trial with 1 year of follow up.

    Setting

    A home health service in a geriatric assessment and rehabilitation hospital in New Zealand.

    Participants

    240 people who were ≥ 75 years of age (mean age 81 y, 68% women) and were living in their own homes. Exclusion criteria were inability to walk around their own residence, current receipt of physiotherapy, or inability to understand the study. 88% of participants completed 1 year of follow up.

    Intervention

    121 participants were allocated to a home-based exercise programme run by a district nurse. The programme was implemented as part of the nurse's usual work and included muscle strengthening and balance-retraining exercises of increasing difficulty as well as a walking programme. Individually tailored exercise …

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    Footnotes

    • Source of funding: Health Funding Authority Northern Division, New Zealand.

    • For correspondence: Dr M C Robertson, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Otago Medical School, P.O. Box 913, Dunedin, New Zealand. Fax +64 3 474 7641.

    • A modified version of this abstract also appears in Evidence-Based Nursing.

    • ↵* See glossary.

    • ↵† Information provided by author.