700 Section - A preliminary study to develop a Seoul-type community-based fall prevention education program for elderly

Fall is the most common health problem among the elderly and can cause many serious complications. Many studies have reported that organized education programs can reduce the incidence of fall events.

Stepping On program is a fall prevention program for elderly, developed and widely implemented in Australia. Stepping On includes weekly 2-hour sessions conducted for 7 weeks, with a follow-up booster visit at week 12.

We aimed to develop a Seoul-style community-based fall prevention education program emphasizing both education and exercise, incorporating from Stepping On.

 

Design:

We designed an 8-week education program, consisting of education and exercise practices. At the first and last weeks, we evaluated body composition (bio-impedence analysis),performances and other questionnaires; body mass index, hand grip strength, short physical performance battery (SPPB), patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), fall efficacy scale international - Korean version (K-FES-I), mini nutritional assessment (MNA), and social frailty index (SFI).

From the second to seventh week, the programs consisted of 1-hour lecture and discussions and 1-hour exercise practices, which were undergone by a well-trained exercise instructor for elderly.

We recruited 15 people over 70-year-old in a single community center for this first preliminary program.

 

Results: 15 were recruited, and 13 people had completed this 8-week program. 10 were females and 3 were males. The mean age was 78.9 year-old. 15 % had experienced falls. Comparing SPPB, grip strength, PHQ-9, and F-FES-I between before first week and last week evaluation, only PHQ-9 scores showed significant change. (pre-education 3.15, post-education 2.54)

Conclusion: We are developing a community-based fall prevention education program for elderly adopting from Stepping On. In our first experience, this program showed good compliance and change in mood (PHQ-9 scores), but no difference in performance scales. Further development of education program and researches on the effects are needed.