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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether new installed assistive technology (AT) systems in care homes for elderly residents, reduced the number of falls and demands for formal health services.

The project collected retrospective data about incidence of falls before and after AT systems were installed from two care homes in the county of Norfolk, UK. Two care homes were selected purposefully because a recent assessment determined the need for upgrading their call system, but with different resident profiles regarding prevalence of dementia. The data were collected from standard incident report forms from ten months before the upgrades to ten months after in Care Home 1 and from six months before the upgrade to six months afterwards in Care Home 2.

In both care homes there were 314 falls reported during the course of the study. The number of falls overall reduced from 202 falls before the introduction of AT, to 112 after the introduction of AT. The mean health care costs associated with falls in Care Home 1 significantly reduced by more than 50 per cent (p=0.015). In Care Home 2 there was no statistically significant difference in the mean cost.

Results showed that installed AT system in residential care homes reduced the number of falls and health care cost in homes with a lower proportion of residents with advanced dementia than those with a higher proportion of residents with advanced dementia. However, larger and more representative studies are required to demonstrate the economic and social impact of AT systems.

This article is based on a small‐scale study into a tai chi class for older people at risk of falling. The aims of the research were first, to explore what benefits the class members felt they derived from practising tai chi and second, and more specifically, whether or not the class members actually practised tai chi at home. The study was based on two broad assumptions. The first being that the practice of tai chi has benefits for older people at risk of falling. The second assumption being that, such benefits that might result from tai chi, increase with more frequent practice. The latter assumption prompted the desire to investigate whether the class members practised tai chi at home. It was hoped that if it was discovered that class members derived benefits from tai chi, and were, for whatever reason, prevented from practising at home, that some solutions could be found in order to facilitate further practice.The research revealed, somewhat surprisingly, that the members did not believe that tai chi had necessarily reduced their risk of falling. However, notwithstanding this, their commitment to tai chi was very strong. The findings suggest that tai chi had a symbolic value for this predominantly middle‐class group. It allowed them to ‘buy into’ a third age lifestyle, despite increasing intimations of entering the fourth age. The members used tai chi, not only to improve balance and fitness, but also as a means of achieving a positive self‐image. It was therefore an age‐resisting strategy that operated on both a physical and symbolic level.

Falls are common in older adults and are associated with injuries and serious ongoing problems. This paper aims to present a participatory evaluation of a Falls Awareness Programme implemented in South Wales for older adults living in sheltered housing schemes or in the community. It identifies methodological issues and provides recommendations for evaluation design and methods for community-based interventions in the future.

A mixed-methods study combining a non-experimental pretest–posttest design with face-to-face focus groups.

Concerns about falling and self-reported general health at baseline were worse for participants living in sheltered housing schemes, compared to participants in the community. There was no statistically significant change between baseline and follow-up in general health or concerns about falling; however, the data suggesting the programme may be more effective for people in sheltered housing schemes. Participants reported making small, but sustainable behaviour changes following the programme and described unexpected outcomes from the programme, e.g. socialising and meeting new people.

This paper demonstrates the benefit of engaging older adults in research using a participatory approach, highlights key components of community-based interventions for older people and identifies some methodological issues when conducting evaluations in the community. Specifically, it highlights the importance of selecting appropriate measurement tools for data collection and the utility of continuous monitoring where programme participation is flexible and fluid.

The purpose of the study is to assess the usability and acceptability of FallCheck, a Web app that allows users to complete home-hazard assessments within their own home, with a group of people at risk of falling and their carers.

This mixed method study used an online survey followed by semi-structured telephone interviews to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. A Think-Aloud study was used to test usability of the Web app through structured tasks.

Findings showed that FallCheck was easy to use with few usability issues. The Web app was deemed appropriate to use by people at risk of falling (young or old) or by carers if appropriate. The depth of knowledge provision and breadth of content was acceptable, and many participants reported subsequently making changes to their home environment to reduce their risk of falling. Overall, the majority of participants reported feelings of improved confidence and safety with an increased awareness of fall risks and a reduction in fear of falling at home.

FallCheck has good acceptability and usability with people at risk of falling and their carers and has the potential to improve access to home-hazard assessment and affect behavioural change regarding fall risk hazards and behaviour.

This study describes successful use of an app that may be helpful in identifying home-hazards and making changes to reduce risk of falls, particularly in the absence of occupational therapy intervention and has the potential for integration into falls care pathways.

Falls are the most frequently reported adverse event in hospitalised patients and carry a risk of great harm for the frail elderly. This intervention aimed to prevent high‐risk in‐patients on an acute aged care ward from falling.

Patients assessed at high falls risk were accommodated in a room staffed by volunteer companion‐observers. The volunteers engaged them in conversation, played cards, opened meals and used the call bell to summon nurses if patients attempted to move from the bed or chair without assistance. Because of occupational health and safety considerations, the volunteers did not assist patients to ambulate.

The falls rate in the acute aged care ward decreased by 44 percent (p<0.000). No patients fell in the observation room when volunteers were present. Relatives of participating in‐patients expressed appreciation of the volunteer role, in terms of increased safety and also companionship. Volunteers exercised initiative in determining their pattern of work and developing resources to support their role.

Because volunteers are not present around the clock, other strategies are needed to prevent wandering, frequently confused older in‐patients from falling during the night.

In a context where frail elderly patients need constant supervision, using volunteers is a reasonable strategy.

This intervention used an inexpensive, human resources‐based approach to significantly reduce the incidence of falls in the population at highest risk of falling. The additional benefits to patients in terms of cognitive improvement bear further investigation.

Falls are a significant burden on the Australian health care budget and can result in loss of personal independence, injury or death. A sustained high rate of inpatient falls in a 550‐bed acute care hospital has made it imperative for nurses to identify patients at highest risk, in order to implement preventive interventions. This study examined the prevalence of “intrinsic high risk” characteristics identified by the literature in people who fell during hospitalisation, to confirm the validity of these predictors in detecting risk. Over ten weeks 91 inpatients fell (total 118 falls) and were assessed for intrinsic risk factors. Most prevalent was impaired ambulatory status resulting in balance instability. Other high prevalence factors included cognitive impairment and age > 75. Commonly cited factors, such as urinary or faecal incontinence, medications and history of prior falls, were found less frequently. No significant differences in risk factors by gender were identified.

The population of older people in the UK is expected to rise rapidly over the next 20 years and therefore identification of effective interventions that prevent functional decline and disablement is a public health priority. This review summarises the evidence for interventions in community settings that aim to prevent or delay disablement in later life.

A search of review‐level literature was conducted for the period September 1999 and 2009 of Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL databases. It included interventions that aimed to prevent disablement of community dwelling older people (50+ years old). It excluded interventions carried out in institutional care and those focused on specific disease. The reviews were screened using the AMSTAR assessment tool.

The search identified 62 reviews of complex interventions (preventative home visits (n=9), integrated service delivery/case management and comprehensive geriatric assessment (n=6), falls prevention (n=17), exercise (n=15), nutritional needs (n=3), medication review (n=2), telecare/telehealth (n=5), social integration interventions (n=3) and vision screening (n=2).

The review identified many areas of unknown effectiveness, partly due to unstandardised use of outcomes and poor experimental design. The most promising complex interventions include: assessment of risk factors; and direct referral to an easily accessible, comprehensive range of interventions that are tailored to need and include long‐term follow up. There is consistent evidence that exercise can be beneficial, particularly in preventing falls, but overall, the evidence‐base for other specific interventions is limited.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the whole system cost of the care pathway for older people (aged 65-years old and over) admitted to hospitals as a result of falls in Torbay, a community of 131,000 in the southwest of England with a high proportion of older residents, over a two-year period.

The paper analysed patient-level linked acute hospital, community care and local authority-funded social care data to track patients’ care costs – for those patients admitted to an acute hospital due to their fall – in the 12 months before and after their fall.

On average, the cost of hospital, community and social care services for each admitted for a fall were almost four times as much in the 12 months after admission, than the cost of the admission itself. Over the 12 months that followed admission for falls, costs were 70 per cent higher than in the 12 months before the fall. The most dramatic increase was in community health care costs (160 per cent), compared to a 37 per cent increase in social care costs and a 35 per cent increase in acute hospital care costs. For patients who had a minor fall and those who survived 12 months after the fall, the costs of care home services increased significantly; for patients with hip fracture, the costs of community care services increased significantly; for patients who did not survive 12 months after the fall, the cost of acute inpatient and community health visits increased significantly.

This is the only study that has assessed the costs across the acute hospital, community care and social care pathway for this group of patients, in an English population. This will help commissioners and providers understand and develop better-integrated responses to frail elderly patients needs.

United Nations’ World Population Ageing Report states that falls are one of the most common problems in the elderly around the world. Falls are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among mature adults, and the second leading cause of accidental or unintentional injury/death after road traffic injuries. The rates are higher in hospitalized patients and nursing home residents. Major contributing reasons for falling are loss of footing or traction, balance problem in carpets and rugs, reduced muscle strength, poor vision, mobility/gait, cognitive impairment: in other words lack of balance. Balance can be improved by the practice of yoga which helps to balance both body and mind through a series of physical postures called asanas, breathing control and meditation. Elders, especially women, are often unable to practice yoga regularly, largely brought on by a feeling of discomfort at having to do so in full public view, preferring instead to have private sessions at home, and at leisure. A computer-assisted self-learning system can be developed to help such elders, though improper training and the postures associated with it may harm the body’s muscles and ligaments. To have a flawless system it is essential to classify asanas, and identify the one the practitioner is currently practicing, following which the system can offer the guidance necessary. The purpose of this paper is to propose a posture recognition system, especially of sitting and standing postures. Asanas are chiefly classified into two: sitting and standing postures. This study helps to decide the values of the parameters for classification, which involve the hip and joint angles.

To model human bodies, skeleton parts such as head, neck (which are responsible for head movements), arms, hands (to decide on hand postures), and legs and feet (for standing posture identification) have been modeled and stored as a vector. Each feature is defined as a set of movable joints. Every interaction among the skeleton joints defines an action. Human skeletal information may be represented as a hierarchy of joints, in a parent–child relationship. So that whenever there is a change in joint its corresponding parent joint may also be altered.

The findings have to do with analyzing the reasons for falls in the elderly and their need for yoga as a precautionary measure. As yoga is ideally suited to self-assisted learning, it is feasible to design a system that assists people who do not wish to practice yoga in public. However, asanas are to be classified prior to doing so. In this paper, the authors have designed a posture identification framework comprising the sitting and standing postures that are fundamental to all yoga asanas, using joint angle measurements. Having fixed joint angle values is not possible, given the variations in angle values among the participants. Consequently, such parameters as the hip joint and knee angles are to be specified in range for a classification of asanas.

This work identifies the angle limits of standing and sitting postures so as to design a self-assisting system for yoga. Yoga asanas are classified and tested to enable their accurate identification. Extensive testing with older people is needed to assess the system.

The increase in the population of the elderly, coupled with their need for medical care, is a major concern worldwide. As older people are reluctant to practice yoga in public, it is anticipated that the proposed system will motivate them to do so at their convenience, and in the seclusion of their homes.

As older people are reluctant to adapt as well as practice yoga in public view, the proposal motivates and helps them to carry out yoga practices at their convenience.

This paper fulfills the initial study on the need and feasibility of creating a self-assisted yoga learning system. To identify postures and classify them joint angles are used; their range of motion has been calculated in order to set them as parameters of classification.

This article aims to reflect on the role of prevention with respect to active ageing and why early action and intervention to promote active ageing at a societal, familial and personal level has potentially become somewhat of a necessity.

The article is the observations of injury prevention and contemporary active ageing initiatives in the UK from a practitioner's perspective.

The potential contribution of prevention towards optimised active ageing has frequently been recognised and supported by studies and programs from around the world. This article supports the theme that prevention can play an important role in promoting active ageing.

The article provides a simple and structured reflection upon the potential role of injury prevention in active ageing and also provides a framework for further analysis and discussion.