Abstract:
Purpose: To develop and investigate effectiveness of robotic fall prevention program on knowledge score of fall prevention, number of exercises, balance score, and incident of fall among elderly at risk of fall residing in senior housings, Bangkok Thailand.
Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with repeated measured. Sixty-four elderly in two senior housings in Bangkok with Barthel Index (BI) scale ≥12, either had at least one fall experience in the past 12 months and/or had Time Up and Go (TUG) test ≥20 seconds were recruited and purposively assigned to the intervention group (a small robot installed fall prevention software, with personal coaching and handbook guideline, n=32) and control group (received only handbook guideline, n=32). Proximal outcomes were knowledge on fall prevention score and number of exercises. The distal outcomes were balance score (Time Up and Go, TUG; Berg Balance Scale, BBS) and Incident of fall. Both groups were evaluated at baseline, 3rd, and 6th month after intervention.
Results: In both groups, there were statistically significant improvement on knowledge mean score at 6th month. However, the intervention group showed a faster increased knowledge mean score than those in the control group at 3rd month (p<0.01). The intervention group showed a higher number of exercises than control group at 3rd and 6th month (p<0.05). In addition, the intervention group showed increment number of exercises over time. (p<0.05). Even though there were not a significantly difference on balance mean score both TUG and BBS between the two groups at baseline, 3rd, and 6th month, the intervention group showed significantly improvement on balance both TUG and BBS at 6th month post-intervention (p<0.01). During 6 month study period, it was one fall incident in the control group.
Conclusions: The robotic fall prevention program shows faster increment of knowledge on fall prevention than reading handbook. Moreover, it can promote exercises, and improve balance among elderly at risk of fall residing in senior housings.
