• Mary Man-Lai Chu, Kenneth Nai-Kuen Fong, Albert Chau-Hung Lit, Timothy Hudson Rainer, Stella Wai-Chee Cheng, Frederick Lap-Yan Au, Henry Kwok-Kwong Fung, Chit-Ming Wong, and Hon-Kuan Tong.
• Department of Occupational Therapy, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong.
• J Am Geriatr Soc. 2017 Feb 1; 65 (2): 364-372.

ObjectivesTo investigate the effects of an occupational therapy fall reduction home visit program for older adults admitted to the emergency department (ED) for a fall and discharged directly home.DesignSingle-blind, multicenter, randomized, controlled trial.SettingsEDs in three acute care hospitals in Hong Kong.ParticipantsIndividuals aged 65 and older who had fallen (N = 311).InterventionsAfter screening for eligibility, 204 consenting individuals were randomly assigned to an intervention group (IG) and received a single home visit from an occupational therapist (OT) within 2 weeks after discharge from the hospital or a control group (CG) and received a well-wishing visit from a research assistant not trained in fall prevention.MeasurementsBoth groups were followed for 12 months through telephone calls made every 2 weeks by blinded assessors with a focus on the frequency of falls. Another blinded assessor followed up on their status with telephone calls 4, 8, and 12 months after ED discharge. Prospective fall records on hospital admissions were retrieved from electronic databases; 198 individuals were followed for 1 year on an intention-to-treat basis.ResultsThe percentage of fallers over 1 year was 13.7% in the IG (n = 95) and 20.4% in the CG (n = 103). There were significant differences in the number of fallers (P = .03) and the number of falls (P = .02) between the two groups over 6 months. Significant differences were found in survival analysis for first fall at 6 months (log-rank test 5.052, P = .02) but not 9 or 12 months.ConclusionOne OT visit after a fall was more effective than a well-wishing visit at reducing future falls at 6 months. A booster OT visit at 6 months is suggested.© 2016, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2016, The American Geriatrics Society.

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