Development of a 'friends & family' fall prevention screening tool for community-dwelling older adults and their caregivers
Description: With an aging population, there are increasing concerns over health system capacity. A key reason for hospitalization among older adults is falls. Falls contribute to over $2billion in healthcare costs and lead to lasting physical and emotional injuries that can be challenging to recover from. Although falls are costly, they are preventable. Screening for risk of falling and programs designed to prevent falls have been shown to be effective. However, these screenings are largely conducted by a primary care clinician or after a patient is already admitted to the emergency room, which places a high burden on the healthcare system. To help alleviate this burden on the healthcare system and improve patient outcomes, public health has focused on promoting patient engagement and empowerment in their healthcare. Older adults themselves and their friends and family may be the first to notice a change in their health and mobility that might increase their risk of a fall before being seen by a clinician. To this end, our goal is to identify the most important and easy to measure risk factors for falls among community-dwelling older adults and then develop a tool for patients and caregivers to use independently in the community. In doing so, we can empower older adults and their caregivers to detect and reduce the risk of falling as early as possible.
Amount: CA$105,000
Funding type: fellowship
Funder scheme: Doctoral Research Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships
Start date: 2021-09-01
End date: 2024-08-31
Investigator: Stephanie Saunders
Institution: McMaster University
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: 177879_1
OpenAlex ID: G4205107880