Objectives: To investigate the effect of use of external hip protectors on subjects' fear of falling and falls self-efficacy (belief in their own ability to avoid falling).
Design: Randomized controlled trial.
Setting: Aged-care health services in Sydney, Australia.
Participants: 131 women aged 75 years or older, who had two or more falls or one fall requiring hospital admission in the previous year and who live at home. Sixty-one subjects were in the intervention group and 70 in the control group.
Intervention: Use of external hip protectors and encouragement to use the protectors by an adherence nurse.
Measurements: At the time of enrolment into a wider study examining the effect of hip protectors on hip fractures, participants recruited at home completed an assessment of fear of falling and falls efficacy as measured by the Falls Efficacy Scale and the Modified Falls Efficacy Scale. At 4-month follow-up, these scales were readministered by an observer who was not aware of the allocation of the participant to intervention or control groups.
Results: Fear of falling and falls self-efficacy, as measured by the Falls Efficacy and Modified Falls Efficacy Scales, were similar at baseline in both groups. Fear of falling was present at follow-up in 43% of subjects using hip protectors and 57% of the control group (chi2 = 2.58, P = 0.11). Hip protector users had greater improvement in falls self-efficacy at follow-up as measured by the Falls Efficacy Scale (t = 2.44, P = 0.016) and the Modified Falls Efficacy Scale (t = 2.08, P = 0.039).
Conclusion: Hip protectors improve falls self-efficacy. As users of hip protectors feel more confident that they can complete tasks safely, they may become more physically active and require less assistance with activities of daily living.