title: Older Adult Perceptions of Participation in Group- and Home-Based Falls Prevention Exercise.
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.
authors.affiliation: School of Physiotherapy, Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Department, Monash University, Australia.
authors.forename: Lauren M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Robins
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Lesley
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Day
authors.forename: Lindy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Clemson
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Finch
authors.forename: Terry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Haines
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires