Development and Effect of a Fall Prevention Program Based on the King's Goal Attainment Theory for Fall High-Risk Elderly Patients in Long-Term Care Hospital

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study to develop a fringed fall prevention program based on King's goal attainment theory and education. This study is applied to the personal, interpersonal, and social systems of fall high-risk patients to test its effects. METHODS: This study was a nonequivalent control group pre- and post-test design. There were 52 fall high-risk patients in the experimental group and 45 in the control group. The experimental group received six sessions, with the group sessions lasting 60 minutes and the individual sessions lasting 20~30 minutes. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, an χ2-test, a paired sample t-test, and a Wilcoxon signed-ranks test utilizing IBM SPSS software. RESULTS: For the 3-month intervention period, the fall prevention program was found to be particularly effective for patients in the experimental group (from 3.38 to 1.69 per 1000 patient days; p=.044), as opposed to the control group (from 1.94 to 1.49 per 1000 patient days; p=.300). For the 6-month follow up period, the fall prevention program was again found to be effective for patients in the experimental group (from 3.26 to 0.76 per 1000 patient days; p=.049) compared to the control group (from 1.98 to 1.01 per 1000 patient days; p=.368). CONCLUSION: These results indicate that the fringed fall prevention program is very effective in reducing falls, not only during the intervention period, but also after the intervention period has ended. We can therefore recommend this program for use concerning fall high-risk patients in long-term care hospitals.