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  • Does a fall prevention educational programme improve knowledge and change exercise prescribing behaviour in health and exercise professionals? A study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

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Medical education and training
Protocol
Does a fall prevention educational programme improve knowledge and change exercise prescribing behaviour in health and exercise professionals? A study protocol for a randomised controlled trial
  1. A Tiedemann1,2,
  2. D L Sturnieks3,
  3. A-M Hill4,
  4. L Lovitt5,
  5. L Clemson6,
  6. S R Lord3,
  7. L Harvey2,
  8. C Sherrington1,2
  1. 1Musculoskeletal Division, The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  2. 2Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
  3. 3Neuroscience Research Australia, The University of New South Wales, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia
  4. 4The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
  5. 5Clinical Excellence Commission, New South Wales Ministry of Health, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  6. 6Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Lidcombe, New South Wales, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Anne Tiedemann; atiedemann{at}georgeinstitute.org.au

Abstract

Introduction Falling in older age is a serious and costly problem. At least one in three older people fall annually. Although exercise is recognised as an effective fall prevention intervention, low numbers of older people engage in suitable programmes. Health and exercise professionals play a crucial role in addressing fall risk in older adults. This trial aims to evaluate the effect of participation in a fall prevention educational programme, compared with a wait-list control group, on health and exercise professionals’ knowledge about fall prevention and the effect on fall prevention exercise prescription behaviour and confidence to prescribe the exercises to older people.

Methods and analysis A randomised controlled trial involving 220 consenting health and exercise professionals will be conducted. Participants will be individually randomised to an intervention group (n=110) to receive an educational workshop plus access to internet-based support resources, or a wait-list control group (n=110). The two primary outcomes, measured 3 months after randomisation, are: (1) knowledge about fall prevention and (2) self-perceived change in fall prevention exercise prescription behaviour. Secondary outcomes include: (1) participants’ confidence to prescribe fall prevention exercises; (2) the proportion of people aged 60+ years seen by trial participants in the past month who were prescribed fall prevention exercise; and (3) the proportion of fall prevention exercises prescribed by participants to older people in the past month that comply with evidence-based guidelines. Outcomes will be measured with a self-report questionnaire designed specifically for the trial.

Ethics and dissemination The trial protocol was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee, The University of Sydney, Australia. Trial results will be disseminated via peer reviewed journals, presentations at international conferences and participants’ newsletters.

Trial registration number Trial protocol was registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (Number ACTRN12614000224628) on 3 March 2014.

  • EDUCATION & TRAINING (see Medical Education & Training)
  • GERIATRIC MEDICINE
  • PREVENTIVE MEDICINE

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007032

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