The Effects of Family Empowerment Program on Fall Prevention Capabilities of the Elderly

Abstract

This quasi-experimental research with one group pretest-posttest design aimed to investigate the results of family empowerment program on fall prevention capabilities of the elderly. The sample was purposively selected twenty nine families, which consisted of the primary caregivers caring for the older adults with risk of fall were recruited. The experimental instrument was the family empowerment program developed by researcher based on Hulme’s family empowerment concept. The research instruments included demographic questionnaires, balance ability test, care and environment management ability for fall prevention questionnaire.
The content validity of the care and environment management ability for fall prevention questionnaire were verified by five experts yielding a value of 0.90 and reliability were 0.93. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and paired t-test.
The results revealed that after received the program, elder’s caregivers had significantly higher mean score of care and environment management ability on the elderly for fall prevention than before received the program. Moreover, the balance ability was significantly better than before received the program. This research showed that the program was effectively improved the ability of caregivers on fall prevention and the better balance ability of the elderly. The researcher suggested that community nurse practitioners should emphasize on encouraging family members participate in caring for the elderly. The enhancing of caregivers’ care ability and environment management can prevent falling of elderly in community.