A feasibility study to prevent falls in older people who are sight impaired: the VIP2UK randomised controlled trial

Waterman, Heather ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7052-2734, Ballinger, Claire, Brundle, Caroline, Chastin, Sebastien, Gage, Heather, Harper, Robert, Henson, David, Laventure, Bob, McEvoy, Lisa, Pilling, Mark, Olleveant, Nicky, Skelton, Dawn A., Stanford, Penelope and Todd, Chris 2016. A feasibility study to prevent falls in older people who are sight impaired: the VIP2UK randomised controlled trial. Trials 17 , 464. 10.1186/s13063-016-1565-0

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Abstract

Background 2 Preventing falls in older people with sight impairment Published evaluations of successful interventions to prevent falls in people with sight impairment (SI) are limited. The aim of this feasibility study is to optimise the design and investigation of home safety (HS) and home exercise (HE) programmes to prevent falls in older people with SI. Methods A community-based feasibility study in Northern England comprising a three arm randomised controlled trial (RCT) allocated participants to (i) control group receiving usual care and social visits, (ii) experimental group receiving the HS programme and (iii) experimental group receiving the HS+HE programme. Participants were community dwelling, aged 65 years and older, and sight impaired. Primary outcome data on falls were collected continuously over 6 months. Secondary outcomes on physical activity (self-report and instrumented) and adherence were collected at baseline, and 3 and 6 months for HE and at 6 months for the HS programme. Costs for the HS and HS+HE groups were calculated from logs of time spent on home visits, telephone calls, and travel. The research assistant and statistician were blinded to group allocation. Results Altogether, 49 people were recruited over a nine month period (randomised: 16 to control, 16 to HS, 17 to HS+HE). The interventions were implemented over 6 months by an occupational therapist at a cost per person (GB Pounds, 2011) of £249 (HS), £674 (HS+HE). 88% (43/49) completed the trial and 6 month follow up. At 6 month follow up, 100% reported partially or completely adhering to HS recommendations but evidence for adherence to HE was equivocal. Although self-reported physical activity increased, instrumented monitoring showed a decrease in 3 Preventing falls in older people with sight impairment walking activity. There were no statistically significant differences in falls between the groups, however, the study was not powered to detect a difference. Conclusion It is feasible and acceptable for an occupational therapist to deliver HS and HE falls prevention programmes to people with SI living independently in the community. Future studies could access Local Authority registers of people with SI to improve recruitment rates. Further research is required to identify how to improve adherence to HE and to measure changes in physical activity before conducting a definitive RCT

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Healthcare Sciences
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Additional Information:	This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher:	BioMed Central
ISSN:	1745-6215
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 August 2016
Date of Acceptance:	23 August 2016
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 23:44
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/94002

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