@article{ref1,
title="A multifactorial intervention for the prevention of falls in psychogeriatric nursing home patients, a randomised controlled trial (RCT)",
journal="Age and ageing",
year="2009",
author="Neyens, Jacques C. L. and Dijcks, Beatrice P. J. and Twisk, Jos and Schols, J. M. G. A. and van Haastregt, Jolanda C. M. and van den Heuvel, Wim J. A. and de Witte, Luc P.",
volume="38",
number="2",
pages="194-199",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the effectiveness of a multifactorial intervention on incidence of falls in psychogeriatric nursing home patients. DESIGN: cluster-randomised controlled 12-month trial. SETTING: psychogeriatric wards in 12 nursing homes in The Netherlands. Participants: psychogeriatric nursing home patients (n = 518). Intervention: a general medical assessment and an additional specific fall risk evaluation tool, applied by a multidisciplinary fall prevention team, resulting in general and individual fall prevention activities. Measurements: falls. RESULTS: there were 355 falls in 169.5 patient-years (2.09 falls per patient per year) in the intervention group and 422 falls in 166.3 patient-years (2.54 falls per patient per year) in the control group. Intention-to-treat analysis with adjustment for ward-related and patient-related parameters, and intra-cluster correlation, showed that the intervention group had a significantly lower mean fall incidence rate than the control group (rate ratio = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.43-0.96, P = 0.029). Subgroup analyses showed that fall risk declined further as patients participated longer in the intervention programme. CONCLUSION: the introduction of a structured multifactorial intervention to prevent falls in psychogeriatric nursing home patients significantly reduces the number of falls. This reduction is substantial and of high clinical relevance.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0002-0729",
doi="10.1093/ageing/afn297",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afn297"
}