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<italic>Older people with vision impairment are at an increased risk of falls. Though exercise-based intervention can reduce falls in the general population, this strategy has not been successful among people with vision impairment. We evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of the LiFE program, a home-based fall prevention program, for people aged over 50 with vision impairment (n=16). The program was successfully delivered by orientation and mobility instructors to clients of Guide Dogs NSW/ACT, a community service organisation. Interviews with study participants showed engagement and adherence and there were positive trends in physical outcome measures supporting this program as a promising approach to enhance strength and balance, ultimately reducing the likelihood of falls in older people with vision impairment.</italic>
</p>
</abstract>

Older people with vision impairment are at an increased risk of falls. Though exercise-based intervention can reduce falls in the general population, this strategy has not been successful among people with vision impairment. We evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of the LiFE program, a home-based fall prevention program, for people aged over 50 with vision impairment (n=16). The program was successfully delivered by orientation and mobility instructors to clients of Guide Dogs NSW/ACT, a community service organisation. Interviews with study participants showed engagement and adherence and there were positive trends in physical outcome measures supporting this program as a promising approach to enhance strength and balance, ultimately reducing the likelihood of falls in older people with vision impairment.

Feasibility and acceptability of orientation and mobility instructors delivering the LiFE falls prevention program to older people with vision impairment.

Vision Rehabilitation International

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Older people with vision impairment are at an increased risk of falls. Though exercise-based intervention can reduce falls in the general population, this...

Feasibility and acceptability of orientation and mobility instructors delivering the LiFE falls prevention program to older people with vision impairment.

Published Online: Jan 01, 2017

Page range: 22 - 33

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/ijom-2017-053

© 2017 Lisa Keay et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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