Fall Prevention by Otago Exercise Program based on Health Belief Model in Community-Dwelling Older Persons

Health belief model (HBM) has been widely used to communicate with older persons in order to change their behaviors. This group of people have a higher risk of fall due to poor postural balance and inappropriate fall-related behaviors. Home-exercise programs like Otago exercise program (OEP) can ameliorate postural balance, but most of the older persons do not well comply with the program. This mixed methods research study was aimed to investigate effects of a 12-week HBM-based OEP (HBM-OEP) on postural balance (Berg balance scale, BBS) and quadriceps torque in 72 healthy community-dwelling older persons (control group, n = 36 and HBM-OEP group, n = 36). Levels of fall-related HBM domains (knowledge, perception, and behaviors) were also recorded at baseline and 12-week post-intervention. Results showed that the BBS increased from 51.3±0.4 to 53.2±0.3 (p < 0.05). The quadriceps torque between baseline and post-intervention were not significantly different (181.7±12.2 vs 188.2±9.9 Nm). In contrast, the quadriceps torque in the HBM-OEP group significantly increased from 176.8±10.6 to 220.0±9.2 Nm (p < 0.05). Both quadriceps torque and BBS were positively correlated with the levels of knowledge, perception, and behavior scores. In conclusion, the 12-week HBM-based OEP was effective to improve postural balance and the levels fallrelated health beliefs.