News Brief
There is growing interest in ways to help elderly parents and relatives remain as independent as they can for as long as they can. This study shows that keeping them independent can be done, but it takes a complex set of community interventions to accomplish the goal. That is far preferable to their going into nursing homes, rarely the preference of the elder person or those who care about them.
Many communities have exercise programs for seniors who still are living on their own but have a high risk of fall. Fall prevention is job one when it comes to protecting your elderly family and friends. Fall prevention efforts are not hard to understand. That alone can prevent that bad break—-a hip—-which is associated with higher death rates.
“In old age, reduction in physical function leads to loss of independence, the need for hospital and long-term nursing-home care, and premature death. We did a systematic review to assess the effectiveness of community-based complex interventions in preservation of physical function and independence in elderly people,” the journal abstract says.
(Ed. Note: The findings have been reformatted for ease of reading. Content is unchanged.)
In the authors’ review of 98 trials, which included 97,984 people, these interventions resulted in:
1. Reduced the risk of not living at home.
2. Reduced the risk of the number of people who required nursing home care.
3. The risk for hospital admissions and falls were reduced.
4. Death was not affected by the interventions measured.
5. Physical function was better in the groups who had the benefit of interventions to keep them physically active.
6. The study did not identify any specific type or intensity of intervention as having greater benefits than others.
7. For reasons that are not clear, the greatest benefits to this group were found in studies started before 1993.
Citation: The Lancet.Volume 371, Number 9614, 1 March 2008