Prevention of Falls in the Elderly
Asombang, Florence; Tafor, Delphine (2015)
Asombang, Florence
Tafor, Delphine
Yrkeshögskolan Arcada
2015
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2015110816065
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2015110816065
Tiivistelmä
This study seeks to find answers to the main research question; how can falls in the elderly be prevented. However, in order to provide answers to this main research question, it is important to identify the causes of such falls in the elderly and last but not the least, how the consequences of these falls are managed once they occur. Qualitative content analysis was the methodological choice for this study because we had access to sufficient scientific articles on fall prevention in the elderly from which to analyze and provide answers to our research questions. The analysis of these articles was guided by Elo & Kyngäs’ (2008) abstraction process model for inductive content analysis. Dorothea Orem’s Self – care Deficit theory provided the theoretical road map for this study. It defines self-care as, “the performance or practice of activities that individuals initiate and perform on their own behalf to maintain life, health, and well-being, while self-care deficit delineates when nursing is needed. The theory’s three steps of nursing process namely – assessment, diagnosis and planning, implement, evaluation further enriched the findings. At the end, we arrived at some interesting conclusions. For instance, falls in the elderly is a vicious circle. As such, any prevention and or management strategies must be holistic. They should include physical, psychological and environmental - the habitat of the elderly. Nevertheless, they are some limitations that could be improved upon. For instance, the thesis could have benefited from more articles than the fifteen articles analysed. Secondly, a mixed method content analysis comprising inductive and deductive strategies would have brought out other perspectives than relying on the inductive approach alone. These limitations notwithstanding, the study sheds some light on fall prevention measures in the elderly and how these can be improved.