Research Article Older Adults ’ Perceptions of Clinical Fall Prevention Programs: A Qualitative Study

Copyright © 2011 Rebecca Calhoun et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. To investigate motivational factors and barriers to participating in fall risk assessment andmanagement programs among diverse, low-income, community-dwelling older adults who had experienced a fall.Methods. Face-to-face interviews with 20 elderly who had accepted and 19 who had not accepted an invitation to an assessment by one of two fall prevention programs. Interviews covered healthy aging, core values, attributions/consequences of the fall, and barriers/benefits of fall prevention strategies and programs. Results. Joiners and nonjoiners of fall prevention programs were similar in their experience of loss associated with aging, core values they expressed, and emotional response to falling. One difference was that those who participated endorsed that they “needed ” the program, while those who did not participate expressed a lack of need. Conclusions. Interventions targeted at a high-risk group need to address individual beliefs as well as structural and social factors (transportation issues, social networks) to enhance participation. 1. Background Falls are common among older adults [1], and their consequences often devastating and costly [2–4]. Evidence