Randomised controlled trial of multimedia patient education approaches to preventing in-hospital falls: data

1206 patients over the age of 60 at two Australian hospitals, Princess Alexandra in Brisbane, Queensland (PAH) and the Swan District Hospital in Perth, Western Australia (SDH) were randomised into a control group and two differing intervention groups. The aim was to collect data assessing the interventions in reducing patient falls in hospital. The primary outcome measure is falls by participants in hospital. Secondary outcome measures include falls at home after discharge, knowledge of falls prevention strategies and motivation to engage in falls prevention activities after discharge. PDA's were used by researchers to record responses directly into excel files and entered into STATA for analysis. The control group data was collected on those patients who continued to receive usual care. Both intervention groups received a specifically designed patient education intervention on minimising falls in addition to usual care. The education was delivered by Digital Video Disc (DVD) and written workbook and aimed to promote falls prevention activities by participants. One of the intervention groups also received follow up education training visits by a health professional. Blinded assessors conduct baseline and discharge assessments and followed up participants for 6 months after discharge.