Evaluation of the falls telephone : an automated system for enduring assessment of falls

© 2011, Copyright the Authors. Journal compilation © 2011, The American Geriatrics Society..

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the reliability and user experiences of an automated telephone system to monitor falls during a prolonged period of time.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study.

SETTING: Four neurological outpatient clinics in the Netherlands.

PARTICIPANTS: One hundred nineteen community-dwelling people with Parkinson's disease without dementia, because falls are common in this population.

MEASUREMENTS: Clinical and demographic data were obtained. The Falls Telephone is a computerized telephone system through which participants can enter the number of falls during a particular period. During a follow-up of 1 to 40 weekly calls, 2,465 calls were made. In total, 173 no-fall entries and 115 fall entries were verified using personal telephone interviews. User experiences were evaluated in 90 of the 119 participants using structured telephone interviews.

RESULTS: All no-fall entries and 78% of fall entries were confirmed to be correct. Sensitivity to detect falls was 100%, and specificity was 87%. Users regarded the Falls Telephone as a convenient tool to monitor falls.

CONCLUSION: The Falls Telephone is a convenient and reliable instrument to monitor falls. The automated system has high specificity, obviating the need for time-consuming personal follow-up calls in the majority of nonfallers. As such, the Falls Telephone lends itself well to data collection in large trials with prolonged follow-up in participants with Parkinson's disease.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2011

Erschienen:

2011

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:59

Enthalten in:

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society - 59(2011), 2 vom: 01. Feb., Seite 340-4

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

van der Marck, Marjolein A [VerfasserIn]
Overeem, Sebastiaan [VerfasserIn]
Klok, Philomène C M [VerfasserIn]
Bloem, Bastiaan R [VerfasserIn]
Munneke, Marten [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Comparative Study
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 28.04.2011

Date Revised 01.12.2018

published: Print

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.03263.x

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM205802087