Authors (including presenting author) :
CHAN Polly (1), YU Dorothy (1), CHAO Leo (1), LAM Doris (1), CHEUNG Joyce (1)
Affiliation :
(1) Occupational Therapy Department, NTWC
Introduction :
The Lifestyle-integrated Functional Exercise (LiFE) programme is an intervention integrating balance and strength activities into daily life, effective at reducing falls in at-risk community dwelling elderly. There is potential for LiFE to be applied to clinical population as fall prevention intervention in HK.
Objectives :
We aimed to 1) explore feasibility to apply LiFE in a post-discharge rehabilitation program for elderly patients with stroke/ or injurious fall with fracture, and 2) perform an initial feasibility evaluation of the program. Pre-post changes in physical performance, functional status and concern of fall were also explored.
Methodology :
A pre-post program evaluation is conducted to evaluate feasibility, potential effectiveness, and implementation outcomes in elderly patients with stroke/ or injurious fall with fracture recruited in a post-discharge support program under Medical-Social Collaboration (MSC). Occupational therapists, receiving a 2- days training held by OTCOC/ HKOTA on LiFE, will teach participants how to integrate strength and balance activities into their daily lives over 8 individual home-based programme. Assessments will be completed at baseline and end of the program.
Result & Outcome :
From Jan 2019 to Dec 2019, 31 patients completed the 8-sessions program. The mean age was 79 with 58% (N=17) were male. 21 were elderly patients with stroke and 10 were with fall with fracture. Change in physical performance using short physical performance battery (SPPB), functional status using Modified Barthel Index (MBI) and Lawton IADL and concern of fall using Iconological Fall Efficacy Scale-Chinese (IconFES) were measured. Significant difference (p< 0.01) was found in pre & post SPPB, MBI, Lawton IADL and IconFES. Conclusion: LiFE has potential to apply to clinical elderly population such as stroke/ injurious fall with fracture as fall prevention intervention with minimal preparation/ material requirement. Effectiveness needs to be further evaluated in a randomised controlled trial.
