Preliminary Clinical Trial- FallScape-D

Study Summary

Falls are a common and expensive problem, especially in persons with cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (PwADRD). The annual cost of falls is approximately 70 billion dollars, and falls add to the burden of a family caregiver. Injurious falls are a frequent reason people are unable to remain at home, resulting in significantly increased care costs to the family and society. Most falls prevention efforts fail to address the understanding of fall risks, or the need to change the behavior of the PwADRD, the caregiver, or both. In response to a National Institute on Aging request for 'Care technology to sustain in-home living, preserve function and promote effective communication', an innovative falls prevention intervention for use by caregivers of PwADRD who are still living at home and classified as at moderate to high risk for falls will be developed and tested. This new technology is called FallScape for Dementia (FS-D). The innovative caregiver-provided daily treatment uses an engaging multimedia approach and behavioral intervention methods to facilitate communication and encourage change in falls prevention behaviors to reduce PwADRD falls. This new FS-D intervention offers the rare opportunity to empower both the caregiver and the Person with memory loss by breaking the frustrating cycle of failure to recognize what could make an individual fall, or change behavior and may mitigate the burden that results from falls. FS-D is an urgently needed falls prevention intervention for family caregiver use. The economic and quality of life benefits of sustaining in-home living by preventing falls will benefit not only the caregiver and family, but will accrue to all stakeholders for this large, high-risk population.

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL FallScape for Persons with Alzheimer's disease or a related Dementia (FS-D)

Study Locations (1)