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Do home adaptation interventions help to reduce emergency fall admissions? A national longitudinal data-linkage study of 657,536 older adults living in Wales (UK) between 2010 and 2017

Joe Hollinghurst, Helen Daniels Orcid Logo, Rich Fry Orcid Logo, Ashley Akbari Orcid Logo, Sarah Rodgers, Alan Watkins Orcid Logo, Sarah Hillcoat-Nalletamby, Neil Williams, Silviya Nikolova, David Meads, Andy Clegg

Age and Ageing, Volume: 51, Issue: 1

Swansea University Authors: Joe Hollinghurst, Helen Daniels Orcid Logo, Rich Fry Orcid Logo, Ashley Akbari Orcid Logo, Alan Watkins Orcid Logo, Sarah Hillcoat-Nalletamby

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DOI (Published version): 10.1093/ageing/afab201

Abstract

Backgroundfalls are common in older people, but evidence for the effectiveness of preventative home adaptations is limited.Aimdetermine whether a national home adaptation service, Care&Repair Cymru (C&RC), identified individuals at risk of falls occurring at home and reduced the likelihood o...

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Published in: Age and Ageing
ISSN: 0002-0729 1468-2834
Published: Oxford University Press (OUP) 2021
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa58465
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Abstract: Backgroundfalls are common in older people, but evidence for the effectiveness of preventative home adaptations is limited.Aimdetermine whether a national home adaptation service, Care&Repair Cymru (C&RC), identified individuals at risk of falls occurring at home and reduced the likelihood of falls.Study Designretrospective longitudinal controlled non-randomised intervention cohort study.Settingour cohort consisted of 657,536 individuals aged 60+ living in Wales (UK) between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2017. About 123,729 individuals received a home adaptation service.Methodswe created a dataset with up to 41 quarterly observations per person. For each quarter, we observed if a fall occurred at home that resulted in either an emergency department or an emergency hospital admission. We analysed the data using multilevel logistic regression.Resultscompared to the control group, C&RC clients had higher odds of falling, with an odds ratio (OR [95% confidence interval]) of 1.93 [1.87, 2.00]. Falls odds was higher for females (1.44 [1.42, 1.46]), older age (1.07 [1.07, 1.07]), increased frailty (mild 1.57 [1.55, 1.60], moderate 2.31 [2.26, 2.35], severe 3.05 [2.96, 3.13]), and deprivation (most deprived compared to least: 1.16 [1.13, 1.19]). Client fall odds decreased post-intervention; OR 0.97 [0.96, 0.97] per quarter. Regional variation existed for falls (5.8%), with most variation at the individual level (31.3%).ConclusionsC&RC identified people more likely to have an emergency fall admission occurring at home, and their service reduced the odds of falling post-intervention. Service provisioning should meet the needs of an individual and need varies by personal and regional circumstance.
Keywords: older people, falls prevention, frailty, falls
College: Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
Funders: BHF_/British Heart Foundation/United Kingdom; HCRW_SCF-18-1504/HCRW/HCRW_/United Kingdom; WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom; CSO_/Chief Scientist Office/United Kingdom; HCRW_HRG-16-1325/HCRW/HCRW_/United Kingdom; HCRW_SCG-19-1654/HCRW/HCRW_/United Kingdom; MRC_/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom; BEHA/41/DMT_/The Dunhill Medical Trust/United Kingdom
Issue: 1