A patient education program supported by staff training can reduce the rate of falls for older patients during inpatient rehabilitation [synopsis]

Question: Does a fall prevention patient education program in addition to staff training reduce the rate of falls in hospital rehabilitation units?Design: A stepped-wedge cluster randomised, controlled trial with blinding of staff collecting falls data.Setting: Eight rehabilitation units in Australia.Participants: After enrolment of the eight inpatient rehabilitation units (clusters), patients were eligible if aged > 60 years, had a projected length of stay of at least 3 days, and had basic cognitive functioning, defined as having a Mini-Mental State Examination score of > 23/30.All multidisciplinary staff in the unit were eligible to participate.After a 10-week control phase, two of the units were randomly allocated to the intervention, with two units added at 10-week intervals until all units had crossed over to the intervention phase.During the trial 1983 patients were admitted during the control phase and 1623 patients were admitted during the intervention phase.Interventions: During control and intervention phases, patients received usual care inpatient rehabilitation management from a multidisciplinary team.In addition, during the intervention period, patients received an individualised fall prevention education program based on changes to health behaviour principles.The program was delivered by a physiotherapist and included a J o u r n a l o f PHYSIOTHERAPY