Citation

Bergeron CD, Friedman DB, Spencer SM, Miller SC, Hilfinger Messias DK, McKeever R. J. Appl. Gerontol. 2016; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0733464816653361

PMID

28380700

Abstract

This research examined factors influencing older women's post-fall decision making. We surveyed 130 independent older women from continuing care retirement communities and non-institutional homes. We categorized women's post-fall decisions as medical, corrective, and social decisions, and examined the associations between post-fall decision categories, decisional conflict, number of post-fall changes, self-rated health, frequency of falls, severity of falls, health literacy, awareness and openness to long-term care institutional options, and demographics. Older women experienced greater decisional conflict when making medical decisions versus social ( p =.012) and corrective ( p =.047) decisions. Significant predictors of post-fall decisional conflict were awareness of institutional care options ( p =.001) and health literacy ( p =.001). Future educational interventions should address knowledge deficits and provide resources to enhance collaborative efforts to lower women's post-fall decisional conflict and increase satisfaction in the decisions they make after a fall.

Language: en

Keywords

decision making; decisional conflict; falls; health literacy; older women; survey