RESEARCH REPORT POSTER DISPLAY

THE EFFECTS OF SHORT-TERM INTERVENTION ON FALLS SELF-EFFICACY AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHANGES IN PHYSICAL FUNCTIONS AND FALLS SELF-EFFICACY. Arai T^1,2, Obuchi S², Inaba Y¹, Nagasawa H³, Shiba Y⁴, Watanabe S⁵, Kimura K⁶, Kojima M²; ¹Graduate School of Medical Science, Kitasato University. ²Department for Prevention of Dependence on Long-term Care, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology. ³Faculty of Health and Social Work, School of Rehabilitation, Kanagawa University of Human Services. ⁴Department of Allied Health Science, Kitasato University. ⁵Department of Gerontology, Graduate School of International Studies, Obirin University. ⁶Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. Tokyo Denki University

PURPOSE: It is important to determine how to maximize the effectiveness of short-term exercise intervention for elderly people. The purposes of our study were to evaluate the effects of short-term exercise intervention on falls self-efficacy and to evaluate the relationships between baseline falls self-efficacy and changes in physical functions in older people. RELEVANCE: Health promotion of community-dwelling older people is now becoming a major field in which physical therapy will play an important role. In particular, preventing falls and slowing declines in physical function are important areas for physical therapists. The results of this study are aimed at providing information on how to maximize the effect of short-term exercise intervention. PARTICIPANTS: The participants were 171 community-dwelling older people aged 65 and older. METHODS: This study was a randomized controlled trial. The methodology of this study was approved by the ethics committee. The subjects were randomly assigned into an exercise intervention group or a health education group. The subjects in the exercise intervention group performed an exercise program that included strength and balance training. The duration of the exercise program was 3 months, with classes conducted for 1.5 hours, twice a week. The subjects in the health education group, which functioned as a control group, received 1.5 hours of lectures on health promotion for older people twice a month for three months. Falls self-efficacy was measured using the Falls Efficacy Scale (FES). The measurements of physical functions included static and dynamic balance, walking velocity, flexibility, and strength. ANALYSIS: After the randomization, we evaluated the differences in each set of measurements between the two groups using an unpaired t-test. The improvement of measurements was evaluated by the Wilcoxon rank test. To evaluate the relationships between the baseline FES score and the change in these measurements after the intervention, we used the Spearman rank-correlation coefficient. RESULTS: About half of the subjects had perfect scores on the FES at the first investigation. There was no difference between the exercise intervention group and the control group in terms of FES score either before or after the intervention period. Also, there was no significant improvement of FES in either group. But there were significant negative correlations between the baseline FES score and the change in maximum walking velocity (r = −0.29, p < 0.018) and knee extensor strength (r = −0.25, p < −0.040) in the exercise group. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that a short-term exercise intervention had no effect, possibly due to the high baseline FES scores of the participants, on the confidence of community-dwelling older persons. However, the negative association between baseline FES score and increases in some measures of function suggest that short-term exercise may be beneficial to a subset of older persons with lower FES scores. The results of our research might help in the planning of effective strategies to improve the physical functions of community-dwelling older people. IMPLICATIONS: For physical therapy practice. KEYWORDS: falls self-efficacy, physical function, short-term exercise intervention. FUNDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This work was not funded by any foundation or company.

ETHICS COMMITTEE: This study was approved by the ethics committees of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institution of Gerontology.