Fall Prevention: Relatedness of Adherence to Recommendations and Self-Rated Knowledge

Objective: Our intent was to explore the relationships between adherence to fall-prevention recommendations and client characteristics possibly related to adherence. Method: We used secondary data originally collected from the initial interviews/home evaluations and follow-up interviews of 120 participants from a previously completed community-based fall-prevention program. Correlations of data from all participants explored relationships between adherence to fall-prevention recommendations and initial concern for falling, self-rated health, and self-rated fall-prevention knowledge. To better understand whether participants gained understanding of the impact of adherence to recommendations, a content analysis was performed on narrative responses to a question regarding the effect of adherence to recommendations on one's ability to independently perform daily tasks. Results: Considering the entire sample, concern about falling was related to adherence to fall-prevention recommendations, but adherence and increased self-rated fall-prevention knowledge was correlated only in a subgroup of participants who identified helpful attributes of recommendations in their narrative responses. Conclusion: Occupational therapy fall-prevention recommendations cannot invoke change without adherence. The relationship demonstrated here between adherence to fall-prevention recommendations and increased self-rated fall-prevention knowledge in participants verbalizing positive aspects of following the recommendations supports previous findings and suggests that an understanding of the benefit may be associated with adherence to fall-prevention recommendations, hopefully leading to fewer falls.