The effects of a multicomponent fall prevention intervention on fall prevalence, depression, and balance among nursing home residents

Background: More than 60 of fall incidents among older adults are multifactorial. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effects of a multicomponent fall prevention intervention on fall prevalence, depression, and balance among nursing home residents. Methods: This pretest-posttest quasiexperimental study was conducted in 2014 on 160 residents of a nursing home in Tehran, Iran. A 4-month multicomponent fall prevention intervention was implemented with a 2-month follow-up. The intervention consisted of educations for nursing home residents and staff, environmental modifications, and stretching, strengthening, and balance-improving exercises for residents. A fall frequency form, the performance-oriented mobility assessment, the timed up and go test, the geriatric depression scale, the Katz index of independence in activities of daily living, and the mini-mental state examination test were used for data collection both before and 6 months after the intervention onset. Data analysis was done using the paired-sample t, independent-sample t, Wilcoxon signed-rank, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis tests as well as the one-way analysis of variance. Results: The mean scores of fall frequency, mobility, balance, and depression among nursing home residents significantly changed from 2.40 ± 0.93, 17.93 ± 4.69 and 20.77 ± 6.91, and 10.14 ± 6.85 at pretest to 0.20 ± 0.55, 24.53 ± 1.78 and 14.11 ± 3.74, and 8.23 ± 5.17 at post test, respectively. Conclusion: Multicomponent intervention is effective in significantly reducing fall prevalence and depression and improving balance and mobility among older adults. Nurses can use such interventions to enhance older adults' mobility, improve their balance, relieve their depression, and reduce their risk of fall