Citation

Mielenz TJ, Jia H, Seefeld E, Schulingkamp M, Smith S, Dam TTL, Rogers K, Alvarez KJ. Fam. Community Health 2014; 37(2): 147-154.

Affiliation

Departments of Epidemiology (Dr Mielenz and Ms Alvarez) and Biostatistics (Dr Jia), Mailman School of Public Health, and Department of Medicine (Dr Dam), Formerly of College of Physicians and Surgeons (Drs Seefeld, Schulingkamp, and Smith), Columbia University, New York; and Atria Senior Living Group (Ms Rogers), Louisville, KY.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/FCH.0000000000000026

PMID

24569160

Abstract

A Matter of Balance/Volunteer Lay Leader model is an evidence-based program to change behavior to adopt falls prevention strategies. The purpose was to translate this program to assisted living communities. A single-arm intervention study was designed to assess for falls-related and physical performance measures. Forty-one residents, with a mean age of 87 years, were eligible for participation. The Falls Management Scale (P = .02) and the Physical Component Summary Score (P = .01) significantly improved from baseline to 8 weeks. Gait speed (P = .059) was borderline significant from baseline to 6 months. We showed evidence for successful translation within the assisted living communities sampled.

Language: en