Delbaere, K., Valenzuela Arteaga, T., Woodbury, A., Davies, T., Yeong, J., Steffens, D., Miles, L., Pickett, L., Zijlstra, G.A.R., Clemson, L., Close, J.C.T., Howard, K., and Lord, S.R. (2015) Evaluating the effectiveness of a home-based exercise programme delivered through a tablet computer for preventing falls in older community-dwelling people over 2 years: study protocol for the Standing Tall randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open, 5 (10). e009173.

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Abstract

Introduction: In order to prevent falls, older people should exercise for at least 2 h per week for 6 months, with a strong focus on balance exercises. This article describes the design of a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a home-based exercise programme delivered through a tablet computer to prevent falls in older people.

Methods and analysis: Participants aged 70 years or older, living in the community in Sydney will be recruited and randomly allocated to an intervention or control group. The intervention consists of a tailored, home-based balance training delivered through a tablet computer. Intervention participants will be asked to complete 2 h of exercises per week for 2 years. Both groups will receive an education programme focused on health-related information relevant to older adults, delivered through the tablet computer via weekly fact sheets. Primary outcome measures include number of fallers and falls rate recorded in weekly fall diaries at 12 months. A sample size of 500 will be necessary to see an effect on falls rate. Secondary outcome measures include concern about falling, depressive symptoms, health-related quality of life and physical activity levels (in all 500 participants); and physiological fall risk, balance, functional mobility, gait, stepping and cognitive performance (in a subsample of 200 participants). Adherence, acceptability, usability and enjoyment will be recorded in intervention group participants over 2 years. Data will be analysed using the intention-to-treat principle. Secondary analyses are planned in people with greater adherence. Economic analyses will be assessed from a health and community care provider perspective.

Item ID:	72811
Item Type:	Article (Scholarly Work)
ISSN:	2044-6055
Copyright Information:	This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Funders:	National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC)
Projects and Grants:	NHMRC APP1084739
Date Deposited:	19 Dec 2024 00:44
FoR Codes:	42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4207 Sports science and exercise > 420799 Sports science and exercise not elsewhere classified @ 100%
SEO Codes:	20 HEALTH > 2005 Specific population health (excl. Indigenous health) > 200502 Health related to ageing @ 100%
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