The effect of walking on falls in older people: the 'Easy Steps to Health' randomized controlled trial study protocol

BMC Public Health

Study Protocol

Alexander Voukelatos¹  Karen Waller²  Dafna Merom³  Chris Rissel⁴  Cathie Sherrington⁵  Wendy Watson⁶ 

[1] Health Promotion Service, Clinical Support Division (Western), Sydney, Australia;Health Promotion Service, Health Reform Transitional Organisation Southern, Sydney, Australia;School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown, Australia;School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;The George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;Transport and Road Safety (TARS) Research, Department of Aviation (formerly NSW Injury Risk Management Research Centre), University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia;

关键词: Physical Activity;    Short Physical Performance Battery;    Bone Mass Density;    Neighbourhood Walkability;    Physical Performance Test;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-11-888

 received in 2011-09-22, accepted in 2011-11-24,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundFalls in older people continue to be a major public health issue in industrialized countries. Extensive research into falls prevention has identified exercise as a proven fall prevention strategy. However, despite over a decade of promoting physical activity, hospitalisation rates due to falls injuries in older people are still increasing. This could be because efforts to increase physical activity amongst older people have been unsuccessful, or the physical activity that older people engage in is insufficient and/or inappropriate. The majority of older people choose walking as their predominant form of exercise. While walking has been shown to lower the risk of many chronic diseases its role in falls prevention remains unclear. This paper outlines the methodology of a study whose aims are to determine: if a home-based walking intervention will reduce the falls rate among healthy but inactive community-dwelling older adults (65 + years) compared to no intervention (usual activity) and; whether such an intervention can improve risk factors for falls, such as balance, strength and reaction time.Methods/DesignThis study uses a randomised controlled trial design.A total of 484 older people exercising less than 120 minutes per week will be recruited through the community and health care referrals throughout Sydney and neighboring regions. All participants are randomised into either the self-managed walking program group or the health-education waiting list group using a block randomization scheme.Outcome measures include prospective falls and falls injuries, quality of life, and physical activity levels. A subset of participants (n = 194) will also receive physical performance assessments comprising of tests of dynamic balance, strength, reaction time and lower limb functional status.DiscussionCertain types of physical activity can reduce the risk of falls. As walking is already the most popular physical activity amongst older people, if walking is shown to reduce falls the public health implications could be enormous. Conversely, if walking does not reduce falls in older people, or even puts older people at greater risk, then health resources targeting falls prevention need to be invested elsewhere.Trial RegistrationAustralia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Register (ANZCTR): ACTRN12610000380099

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Voukelatos et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.