scholarly journals Self-Monitoring of Balance Performance can Reduce the Rate of Falls Among Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine E. Forth ◽  
Charles S. Layne ◽  
Stefan I. Madansingh

Background: 29% of older adults fall annually, resulting in the leading cause of accidental death. Fall prevention programs typically include exercise training and self-monitoring of physical activity has a positive effect on the self-efficacy and self-regulation of exercise behaviors. We assessed if self-monitoring of fall risk, without an intervention, impacts fall rates.Methods: Fifty-three older adults had open access to a balance measuring platform which allowed them to self-monitor their postural stability and fall risk using a simple 1-min standing balance test. 12-month retrospective fall history was collected and a monthly/bimonthly fall log captured prospective falls. Participants had access to self-monitoring for up to 2.2 years. Fall history and fall incidence rate ratios and their confidence intervals were compared between the periods of time with and without access to self-monitoring.Results: A 54% reduction in the number of people who fell and a 74% reduction in the number of falls was observed when participants were able to self-monitor their postural stability and fall risk, after normalizing for participation length. Further, 42.9% of individuals identified as having high fall risk at baseline shifted to a lower risk category at a median 34 days and voluntarily measured themselves for a longer period of time.Discussion: We attribute this reduction in falls to changes in health behaviors achieved through empowerment from improved self-efficacy and self-regulation. Providing older adults with the ability to self-monitor their postural stability and intuit their risk of falling appears to have modified their health behaviors to successfully reduce fall rates.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 555-555
Author(s):  
Walter Boot ◽  
Nelson Roque ◽  
Erin Harrell ◽  
Neil Charness

Abstract Adherence to health behaviors is often poor, including adherence to at-home technology-based interventions. This study (N=120) explored adherence to a cognitive training intervention delivered via computer tablet, assessed adherence over a 4.5 month period, explored how individual difference factors shaped adherence, and tested the efficacy of message framing manipulations (positive vs. negative framing) in boosting adherence. Individual difference factors predicted adherence, including variations in self-efficacy and belief in the efficacy of cognitive training. Overall message framing had little impact. However, during the final portion of the study in which participants were asked to play as much or as little as they wanted instead of following a schedule, participants who received positively framed messages engaged with the intervention more. Implications for predicting and boosting adherence to home delivered technology-based interventions will be discussed.


Author(s):  
Christopher Hertzog ◽  
Taylor Curley

Metamemory is defined as cognitions about memory and related processes. Related terms in the literature include metacognition, self-evaluation, memory self-efficacy, executive function, self-regulation, cognitive control, and strategic behavior. Metamemory is a multidimensional construct that includes knowledge about how memory works, beliefs about memory (including beliefs about one’s own memory such as memory self-efficacy), monitoring of memory and related processes and products, and metacognitive control, in which adaptive changes in processing approaches and strategies may be contemplated if monitoring of memory processes (encoding, retention, retrieval) indicates that alternative strategies may be required. Older adults generally believe that their memory has declined and that, on average, they have less control over memory and lower memory self-efficacy than young and middle-aged adults. Many but not all aspects of online memory monitoring are well preserved in old age, such as the ability to discriminate between information that has been learned versus not learned. A major exception concerns confidence judgments concerning whether recognition memory decisions are correct; older adults are more prone to high-confidence memory errors, believing they are recognizing something they have not encountered previously. The evidence regarding metacognitive control is more mixed, with some hints that older adults do not use monitoring to adjust control behaviors (e.g., devoting more time and effort to studying items they believe have not yet been well-learned). However, any age deficits in self-regulation based on memory monitoring or adaptive strategy use can probably be addressed through instructions, practice, or training. In general, older adults seem capable of exerting metacognitive control in memory studies, although they may not necessarily do so without explicit support or prompting.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S471-S472
Author(s):  
Andre G Bouweraerts ◽  
Justus Ortega

Abstract Within California, older adults living in rural counties have reported higher rates of falls than urban dwelling older adults. Although many Indigenous people live in rural areas, it is unclear whether the rate of falls among Indigenous older adults is similar to that of non-indigenous older adults living in rural areas. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine fall risk behaviors and intrinsic risk factors for falls in rural dwelling Indigenous (N = 89), and non-Indigenous (N = 68) older adults 60-95 years of age living in California. Results showed that both Indigenous and non-Indigenous older adults share similarly high fall rates, but there are a much greater number of Indigenous older adults falling multiple times a year. Moreover, fall risk behaviors and intrinsic fall risk factors were significantly different between Indigenous and non-Indigenous rural-dwelling older adults. Future studies should investigate falls and fall risk factors in different tribes/locations of Indigenous older adults to better understand whether these risk factors differ among tribes. Moreover, it would be beneficial for future studies to assess the effectiveness of fall prevention exercises on fall risk in these communities. Information gained from this study helps to inform clinicians and researchers alike about the prevalence of falls and factors contributing to falls among Indigenous older adults living in rural communities; and helps to influence decisions in the future of programs for reducing fall risk in this often neglected population.


2014 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 737-747
Author(s):  
Kyoug Hyun Lee ◽  
Se Yong Jang ◽  
Hyun Woo Kang

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare B. Johnson ◽  
Shannon L. Mihalko ◽  
Karl M. Newell

The study reported had three purposes, namely, to analyze the effect of aging (cohort groups 20–29, 60–69, 70–79, and 80–89 years of age), step length, and self-efficacy on the time to reacquire stability after the execution of a step. The analysis of force-platform data showed that the time to reacquire a stable posture after taking a step increased with increments of age. Correlation analysis showed that older adults were less confident in their ability to complete daily activities without falling or losing balance and that participants with lower levels of balance-related efficacy required a longer time to reacquire stability. These findings provide evidence that aging imposes temporal limitations in the regaining of postural stability that are related to individuals’ perceptions of balance and falls efficacy.


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