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Falls in Elderly and Telehealth: a Randomized Controlled Study

NCT02487589 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 280

Last updated 2016-06-16

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Fall incidents are the third cause of chronic disablement in elderly according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Recent meta-analyses shows that a multifactorial falls risk assessment and management programs are effective in all older population studied. However, the application of these programs may not be the same in all National health care setting and, consequently, needs to be evacuated by cost-effectiveness studies before to plan this intervention in regular care. In Italy structured collaboration between hospital staff and primary care is generally lacking and the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in a fall prevention program at home has never been explored.

This is a two-group randomized controlled trial aiming to evaluate the effect of a home-based intervention program, delivered by a multidisciplinary health team, in preventing falls in elderly. The home tele-management program, previously adopted in our Institute for chronic patients, will be proposed to elderly people affected by chronic diseases at high risk of falling at time of hospital discharge. The program will involve the hospital staff and will be managed thanks to the collaboration between hospital and primary care setting. Patients will be followed at home for 6 months after hospital discharge. A nurse-tutor will be the case manager and telephone support, telemonitoring and tele-exercise will characterize the intervention program. People in the control group will receive the usual care. The main outcome measure of the study will be the percentage of patients sustaining a fall during the 6-months follow-up period. An economic evaluation will be performed from a societal perspective and will involve calculating cost-effectiveness and cost utility ratios.

Conditions

Interventions

OTHER

Telephone support, telemonitoring and tele-exercise

The care model will provide 24/24 h assistance for six months and include: Telephone Support: a nurse-tutor (NT) will follow-up the enrolled patients weekly mainly through scheduled appointments. NTs duties will be: 1 education (patients and family ' s health education on how to prevent falls, verification of the adherence to the pharmacological therapy, teaching on how to recognize problems that can conduct to falls) and 2. management. Occasional appointments will be required by patients on duty and managed by a nurse . Telemonitoring: all patients will send proper biological traces and data will be registered on a personal health record. Tele-exercise: Home exercises sessions will be provided by a DVD and monitored through a videoconference by a physiotherapist.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Alessandro Giordano, MD · Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2014-05-31
Primary Completion
2015-12-31
Completion
2016-06-30

Countries

  • Italy

Study Locations

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Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT02487589 on ClinicalTrials.gov