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M Clare Robertson a Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences,
Otago Medical School, PO Box 913, Dunedin, New Zealand, b Department of
Economics, University of Otago
Correspondence to: M C Robertson clare.robertson{at}stonebow.otago.ac.nz
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Abstract |
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Objectives:
To assess the effectiveness of a trained
district nurse individually prescribing a home based exercise programme to reduce falls and injuries in elderly people and to estimate the cost
effectiveness of the programme.
Design:
Randomised controlled trial with one year's follow up.
Setting:
Community health service at a New Zealand hospital.
Participants:
240 women and men aged 75 years and older.
Intervention:
121 participants received the exercise
programme (exercise group) and 119 received usual care (control group); 90% (211 of 233) completed the trial.
Main outcome measures:
Number of falls, number of
injuries resulting from falls, costs of implementing the programme, and
hospital costs as a result of falls.
Results:
Falls were reduced by 46% (incidence rate ratio 0.54, 95% confidence interval 0.32 to 0.90). Five hospital admissions were due to injuries caused by falls in the control group
and none in the exercise group. The programme cost $NZ1803 (£523) (at
1998 prices) per fall prevented for delivering the programme and $NZ155
per fall prevented when hospital costs averted were considered.
Conclusion:
A home exercise programme, previously
shown to be successful when delivered by a physiotherapist, was also effective in reducing falls when delivered by a trained nurse from
within a home health service. Serious injuries and hospital admissions
due to falls were also reduced. The programme was cost effective in
participants aged 80 years and older compared with younger participants.
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What is already known on this topic
What this study adds
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Introduction |
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The frequency, serious consequences, and healthcare costs of falls in elderly people are well documented.1-5 Randomised controlled trials of single and multiple interventions have shown that falls can be reduced.6 The effectiveness of these programmes and their costs in usual healthcare settings have not been reported. Our research group developed a home based programme of strength and balance retraining, which was effective in reducing falls and falls resulting in moderate injuries when delivered by a research physiotherapist to a group of women aged 80 years and older living in the community. 7 8
We have now tested in two healthcare settings the effectiveness and
efficiency of the programme when delivered by health professionals previously untrained in prescribing exercise. This first paper reports
on the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the exercise programme
in both men and women aged 75 years and older when delivered from an
established home health service by a trained district nurse.
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Participants and methods |
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Participant recruitment
We identified potential participants aged 75 years and older from
computerised registers at 17 general practices (30 doctors) in the West
Auckland area, New Zealand. These patients received a letter from their
doctor inviting them to take part in the study. The criteria for
exclusion were inability to walk around own residence, receiving
physiotherapy at the time of recruitment, or not able to understand the
requirements of the trial. Recruiting took place over a six month
period in 1998.
Intervention
The implementation of the exercise programme was run from a home
health service based in a geriatric assessment and rehabilitation
hospital. The nurse, who attended a one week training course, delivered
the exercise programme in conjunction with her work as a district
nurse. The intervention consisted of a set of muscle strengthening and
balance retraining exercises that progressed in difficulty, and a
walking plan.7 The programme was individually prescribed
during five home visits by the instructor at weeks 1, 2, 4, and 8, with
a booster visit after six months. The number of repetitions of the
exercise and the number of ankle cuff weights (1, 2, and 3 kg; range 0 to 6 kg) used for muscle strengthening were increased at each visit as
appropriate. Participants were expected to exercise at least three
times a week (about 30 minutes per session) and to walk at least twice
a week for a year. Compliance was monitored with postcard calendars
similar to those used to monitor falls. For the months when no home
visit was scheduled the nurse telephoned participants to maintain
motivation and discuss any problems.
Measurement of falls and injuries and health status
Falls were defined as "unintentionally coming to rest on the
ground, floor, or other lower level."9 Falls were
monitored for one year in both groups by asking participants to return
preaddressed and prepaid postcard calendars for each month. The
independent assessor telephoned participants to record the
circumstances of the falls and any injuries or resource use as a result
of the falls. She remained blind to group allocation.
Methods used in economic evaluation
We used cost effectiveness analysis to enable comparisons of
programme efficiency with other interventions for preventing falls. We
considered costs from the societal perspective because of the broad
nature of the problems caused by falls, and we reported them in New
Zealand dollars according to 1998 prices, exclusive of government goods
and services tax. The control group was used as the comparator for the
analysis. We measured cost effectiveness as the incremental cost of
introducing the programme per fall event prevented during the trial.
that is, those resources that could have been employed
elsewhere
could be included. We performed one way sensitivity analyses.
Costs of the exercise programme
We focused on the costs of implementing the exercise programme.
Although there were costs associated with developing the programme,
these costs were incurred before the trial and were not incremental to
this programme.
Resource use and healthcare costs resulting from falls
In a previous trial of the exercise programme we found that 90%
of the estimated healthcare costs resulting from falls were for
hospital inpatient and associated health service costs.12
A further 4% were for those services used as a result of serious
injuries and were not provided by the local hospital. Estimated costs
for injuries we classified as moderate made up the remaining 6% of
total healthcare costs resulting from falls.
Calculation of cost effectiveness ratios
We measured cost effectiveness as the ratio
C:
E, where
C
(incremental cost) was the change in resource use resulting from the
exercise programme.13
E (incremental effect) as the difference between the
number of falls and the number of falls resulting in moderate or
serious injury in the two groups. We calculated cost effectiveness ratios for the duration of the trial only.
Sensitivity analysis
We carried out one way sensitivity analyses by calculating cost
effectiveness ratios. We did this with a range of estimates of cost
items for implementing the exercise programme to investigate robustness
of the ratios to different delivery scenarios.
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Statistical analysis
We analysed data on an intention to treat basis. No deviations
occurred from random allocation. The mean (SD) time between baseline
assessment and the first home visit was 11.5 (6.1) days.
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Results |
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Trial participants and follow up
Table 1 shows the characteristics of participants at entry to
the trial.
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Falls and fall related injuries
Table 2 shows the actual and standardised numbers of falls
and the numbers of falls resulting in injuries during the trial. We
found a 46% reduction in the number of falls during the trial for the
exercise group compared with the control group (incidence rate ratio
0.54, 95% confidence interval 0.32 to 0.90). The number of falls was
reduced in those aged 80 years and older (81 v 43 falls for
control and exercise groups, respectively; P=0.007), and there was no
difference in participants aged 75 to 79 years. One participant did
fall while exercising according to instructions.
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Economic evaluation
The programme cost $NZ52 229 ($NZ432 per person) to deliver to
the 121 participants for one year.
Cost effectiveness measures
The incremental cost per fall prevented was $NZ1803. Estimates for
the cost per fall with an injury prevented ranged from $NZ5603 to
$NZ9437 for the different cost scenarios. When we included cost savings
from hospital admissions in the calculation of cost effectiveness
ratios, the estimates of the ratios were considerably lower (some
indicated cost savings) than for those calculated using the exercise
programme costs alone (see www.bmj.com).
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Discussion |
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An individually tailored exercise programme delivered at home can prevent falls. Subgroup analysis showed that the programme was effective in those aged 80 years and older but not in those aged 75 to 79 years. Although our trial was not designed to test this, the finding is consistent with our previous finding that falls were not reduced by the exercise programme in a sample of women and men aged 65 years and older who were taking psychotropic drugs.15 The programme may be more effective in frailer, elderly people than younger, fitter people because the exercises increase strength and balance above the critical threshold necessary for stability.
As with all age groups only a proportion will be prepared to join an exercise programme, but as shown by the characteristics at trial entry, the participants represented a general population of this age group. Follow up was good, although more people withdrew from the control than exercise group. This may have biased the results against effectiveness because those who withdrew were at a higher risk of falling.
The exercise group had the same number of moderate injuries but fewer serious injuries as a result of a fall than the control group. Injuries resulting in hospital admissions are costly, and reducing injuries such as fractures and lacerations in our trial resulted in cost savings.
Comparison with other interventions for preventing falls
Effectiveness
Implementing this single intervention proved as or more effective
in reducing falls than other successful community based programmes
reported in the literature.16-19 Withdrawing psychotropic drugs reduced the risk of falls by 66%, but there were difficulties in
recruiting participants to the trial and a high dropout
rate.15 Other community based interventions have not
proved successful in reducing falls.20-23
Economic efficiency
Little information is available at present for comparing the
efficiency of the exercise programme with other interventions aimed at
preventing falls. We found only two publications reporting the cost
effectiveness of implementing an intervention for preventing falls in
the community.
24 25
The exercise programme in our trial
was more cost effective than a home based, targeted, multifactorial
intervention (total intervention implementation costs per fall
prevented $US2668 (at 1993 prices; around $NZ6141) versus $NZ1803,
although this figure did include "developmental" costs for the
programme).24 A home assessment and modification programme, successful in reducing falls in those with a history of a
fall in the previous year, cost an average of $A4986 (according to 1997 prices; $NZ1.00=$A0.89 in 1997) per fall prevented. This cost
effectiveness ratio incorporated all healthcare resource use during the
trial.25
Conclusions
In our previous trials, the exercise programme was delivered by a
physiotherapist.
7 15
We conclude that a trained district
nurse is also an appropriate person to implement the programme.
Implementation of the programme worked well when run from an
established home health service and required the minimum of input from
other staff. We recommend that nurses are trained and supervised by a
suitably qualified physiotherapist. Although supervision in the same
centre would be less time consuming and less costly, long distance
supervision combining site visits and telephone contact worked well.
This trial studied one trained nurse in one health service delivering a
home based exercise programme. Our second pragmatic trial studies
practice nurses trained to deliver the programme from general
practices.27
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Acknowledgments |
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We thank the participants; the West Auckland doctors and their receptionists; Gaye McKay, exercise instructor; Tania Roebuck, independent assessor; Lenore Armstrong, research nurse; Beth Cozens, manager, home health services; Margaret Devlin, Safe Waitakere; Toni Gibbins, clinical analyst; Peter Herbison, statistician; Molly Kavet, clinical information analyst; Professor Murray Tilyard and the General Practice Research Unit; Sheila Williams, statistician; and Gail Woollacott, locality manager.
Contributors: All authors contributed to the study or protocol design, or both, interpreted the data, and wrote the paper. AJC directed the project. MCR managed the project and the data gathering, analysed and interpreted the data, and wrote the paper. MMG trained and supervised the exercise instructor. ND and Dr Paul Scuffham advised on the economic evaluation. AJC and MCR will act as guarantors for the paper.
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Footnotes |
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Funding: This project was funded by the Health Funding Authority Northern Division, New Zealand. MCR and MMG were part funded by Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation Insurance Corporation of New Zealand. MMG was also part funded by a Trustbank Otago Community Trust medical research fellowship.
Competing interests: None declared.
The full version of this article
appears on the BMJ's website
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(Accepted 19 December 2000)
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