Fall Recovery Intervention and its Effect on Fear of Falling in Older Adults

The purpose of this study was to measure effects of a fall education program and a floor-rise intervention on fear of falling. FOF was established in 63 independent older adults (range = 73-102 years). Educational materials (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013) were presented to participants who were subdivided into education-only and fall-recovery floor-rise training groups. FOF was measured after the educational materials were discussed and again post-floor-rise training. RMANOVA detected no change in FOF across groups or administrations; FOF trended downward post-intervention. Participants had low levels of FOF at baseline, making additional change difficult. Interviews suggested increased confidence following the training intervention. Further study with groups exhibiting higher initial FOF is recommended.