Citation

Robins LM, Hill KD, Day L, Clemson L, Clemson C, Finch C, Haines T. J. Aging Phys. Act. 2015; 24(3): 350-362.

Affiliation

School of Physiotherapy, Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Department, Monash University, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Human Kinetics Publishers)

DOI

10.1123/japa.2015-0133

PMID

26539657

Abstract

This paper describes why older adults begin, continue and discontinue group- and home-based falls prevention exercise and benefits and barriers to participation. Telephone surveys were used to collect data for 394 respondents. Most respondents reported not participating in group- (66%) or home-based (78%) falls prevention exercise recently. Reasons for starting group-based falls prevention exercise include health benefits (23-39%), health professional recommendation (13-19%) and social interaction (4-16%). They discontinued because the program finished (44%) or due to poor health (20%). Commonly reported benefits were social interaction (41-67%) and health (15-31%). Disliking groups was the main barrier (2-14%). Home-based falls prevention exercise was started for rehabilitation (46-63%) or upon health professional recommendation (22-48%) and stopped due to recovery (30%). Improvement in health (18-46%) was the main benefit. These findings could assist health professionals in prescribing group-based falls prevention exercise by considering characteristics of older adults who perceive social interaction to be beneficial.

Language: en