As a senior recovers from a pelvic or lower limb fracture suffered in a fall, the incident may be behind them, but there is a tremendous amount of risk and uncertainty ahead. Seniors who break a hip are especially at risk.
While surgery is generally successful, most hip fracture survivors never regain their previous level of mobility, making them more prone to additional falls. By some estimates, 10% of these seniors won’t be able to return to their previous residence.
Improving outcomes: what’s the right regimen?
Some prior studies have found that exercise programs are successful in improving outcomes after a fall-related fracture. However, others seem to contradict that finding, especially if the regimen involves exercise but no fall prevention instruction. And, if exercise plus advice is ultimately established to be helpful, it has not been determined what the optimal structure is for a fall prevention program. What type or types of exercise should be used? At what intensity? How frequently? Currently, no consensus exists.
Researchers in Australia are looking to change that through RESTORE. They are preparing to perform a randomized controlled trial involving 350 seniors aged 60 and over who are recovering from a pelvis or lower limb fracture.
The primary objective of this first-of-its-kind research will be to compare the effect of an exercise and fall prevention self-management program with standard care on mobility-related disability and falls in seniors with a recent fall-related lower limb or pelvic fracture. It will also look to establish the cost-effectiveness of intervention compared to standard care, the safety and tolerability of the program, and the optimal features for a program.
The study will be completed by the spring of 2017. When the details are published, this will be insightful for all of us concerned with fall prevention in seniors and should be of great value to senior care providers.
The advantages of exercise: higher quality of life and lower costs
Caregivers everywhere will be eager to learn what this trial reveals, but in the meantime, providing exercise and mobility improvement programs to your seniors, after a fall, does two things.
- First, and most importantly, it can (especially when paired with fall prevention instruction) help decrease the risk of future falls. In doing so, it increases a participant’s confidence and quality of life.
- Second, it can reduce the financial obligations related to hospitalization, medical procedures, and rehabilitation for the family or community that is caring for the senior.
Ultimately, seniors and all involved with their care benefit when seniors, who have had a fall are provided with a structured exercise program, and encouragement to stick with it, after a fall-related fracture. And when the RESTORE study is complete, care providers will have even more specific information on exactly what that program should look like to produce the best outcomes.
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