Agathe Lorthios-Guilledroit

Fear of Falling among Seniors: A Target to Consider in Occupational and Physical Therapy Practice?

ABSTRACT Fear of falling, a frequent fear among community-dwelling seniors, can interfere with their activity level and social participation and negatively impact on their health and quality of life. Thus, it is an important factor to consider by occupational and physical therapists involved with this population. Based on the most recent studies in this field of research, this paper aims to provide occupational and physical therapists with a better understanding of the impact of fear of falling on seniors’ health and quality of life, and offer them guidance on how to assess fear of falling and other fall-related psychological factors and how to intervene on these factors.

Jog Your Mind: methodology and challenges of conducting evaluative research in partnership with community organizations.

BACKGROUNDnJog Your Mind is a community-based program aiming at empowering elderly people to maintain their cognitive abilities using a multi-strategic approach including cognitively stimulating activities, mnemonic strategies, and strategies to promote healthy behaviors. It is offered to elderly individuals without known or diagnosed cognitive impairment by volunteers or community practitioners over ten weekly sessions. This paper describes the protocol of a quasi-experimental study designed to evaluate Jog Your Mind.nnnMETHODSnCommunity responsible to recruit participants were either assigned to the experimental group (participating in the Jog Your Mind program) or to the control group (one-year waiting list). All participants were interviewed at baseline (T1), after the program (T2), and 12 months after the baseline (T3). Primary outcomes were the use of everyday memory strategies and aids and subjective memory functioning in daily life. Secondary outcomes included attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors related to cognitive vitality and cognitive abilities (memory and executive functions). Program delivery, organizational and environmental variables were recorded to document the implementation process.nnnRESULTSnTwenty-three community organizations recruited 294 community-dwelling elderly individuals in total at T1. Between T1 and T3, an attrition rate of 15.2% was obtained.nnnCONCLUSIONSnJog Your Mind is one of the only programs targeting cognition among older adults being offered in community settings by community practitioners. The protocol described was designed with a focus on maximizing broad generalizations of the results while achieving scientific rigor. It can serve as an example to guide future research aiming to evaluate health interventions under natural conditions.

Design and Implementation of a Community Program to Promote Cognitive Vitality among Seniors.

Background: Jog Your Mind is a community-based program aiming to enable seniors to maintain their cognitive abilities. It includes stimulating activities, information on aging, mnemonic strategies, and promotion of a healthy lifestyle and is offered over 10 weekly sessions to seniors with no known cognitive impairment. Purpose: This article describes the development and content of the program, as well as the results of the process evaluation. Methods: A coconstruction framework guided the development and evaluation of the program. The development involved experts, practitioners, and partners. The program was implemented by 13 community organizations (n = 143 seniors). Program implementation, response of the participants, and group leaders and managers opinions of the program were documented. Results: The program was implemented in variable contexts, socioeconomic levels, type and size of settings, group leaders background, and participants profiles. Seniors satisfaction and participation rates were high. Opinions from group leaders and managers were positive and suggestions for improvement were minor. Discussion: Jog Your Mind was considered as satisfactory and beneficial by participants and feasible by community organization practitioners. Translation to Health Education Practice: Using a systematic, coconstruction framework involving stakeholders can lead to relevant and practical interventions that are well received by practitioners and the target population.

Attitudes and lifestyle changes following Jog your Mind: results from a multi-factorial community-based program promoting cognitive vitality among seniors

This study examined the effects on attitudes and lifestyle behavior of Jog your Mind, a multi-factorial community-based program promoting cognitive vitality among seniors with no known cognitive impairment. A quasi-experimental study was conducted. Twenty-three community organizations were assigned either to the experimental group (offering the program) or to the control group (creating a waiting list). They recruited 294 community-dwelling seniors. The aims of the study were to verify the effects of the program on attitudes and behaviors related to cognitive vitality and to explore its effects on cognitive vitality. Data was collected at baseline and after the program. Regression analyses revealed that, following their participation in the program, experimental group participants reported: (i) in terms of attitudes, having a greater feeling of control concerning their cognitive capacities, (ii) in terms of behaviors, using significantly more memory strategies and practicing more physical activity and stimulating activities than control group participants. However, the program had no significant effects on measures of cognitive vitality. This study supports the fact that a multi-factorial community-based program can have significant effects on seniors attitudes and lifestyle behaviors related to cognitive vitality but at short term, no effects on cognitive vitality it-self were found.

Factors associated with the implementation of community-based peer-led health promotion programs: A scoping review

Peer education is growing in popularity as a useful health promotion strategy. However, optimal conditions for implementing peer-led health promotion programs (HPPs) remain unclear. This scoping review aimed to describe factors that can influence implementation of peer-led HPPs targeting adult populations. Five databases were searched using the keywords health promotion/prevention, implementation, peers, and related terms. Studies were included if they reported at least one factor associated with the implementation of community-based peer-led HPPs. Fifty-five studies were selected for the analysis. The method known as best fit framework synthesis was used to analyze the factors identified in the selected papers. Many factors included in existing implementation conceptual frameworks were deemed applicable to peer-led HPPs. However, other factors related to individuals, programs, and implementation context also emerged from the analysis. Based on this synthesis, an adapted theoretical framework was elaborated, grounded in a complex adaptive system perspective and specifying potential mechanisms through which factors may influence implementation of community-based peer-led HPPs. Further research is needed to test the theoretical framework against empirical data. Findings from this scoping review increase our knowledge of the optimal conditions for implementing peer-led HPPs and thereby maximizing the benefits of such programs.

Intersectoral Co-construction of a Community-Based Workshop for Respectful Sharing of Public Transportation

Challenges of seniors’ use of public transportation and efforts to minimize them call upon intersectoral action. A seniors’ community group partnered with a local health agency to develop an intergenerational workshop aiming to promote respectful sharing of public transportation among teenagers. This article describes the steps of an intersectoral and interdisciplinary co-construction process in which high schools, a local health agency, the transportation sector, academia and seniors’ community organizations collaborated. This led to the development of a workshop that was both feasible and appreciated by the main stakeholders. Lessons learned from this collaborative process for developing intersectoral community-based initiatives are discussed.

Cognitive Health Promotion Program for Community-Dwelling Seniors: Who Are We Reaching?

This exploratory study examines the reach of Jog Your Mind, a multifactorial community-based program promoting cognitive vitality among seniors with no known cognitive impairment. The aim was to determine whether the program successfully reached its target population and to compare the characteristics of participants (sociodemographic, health, lifestyle, attitudes, and cognitive profile) with the general population of seniors. Twenty-three community organizations recruited 294 community-dwelling seniors willing to participate in the program. Descriptive analyses revealed that the participants were mostly Canadian-born educated women living alone. Participants’ health profile and lifestyle behaviors were fairly similar to those of seniors in Québec and Canada. A large proportion of the participants were concerned about their memory. These results suggest that the program did not attract many hard-to-reach members of the population and reached seniors who may have had some cognitive challenges. Cues to action for improving the reach of cognitive health promotion programs are discussed.

Development and validation of a French Canadian version of the Falls Behavioral (FaB) Scale

Abstract Purpose: To develop a French Canadian version of the Falls Behavioral (FaB) Scale and examine its psychometric properties. Methods: The FaB was adapted in French Canadian (FaB-FC) and validated according to standard guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation of questionnaires. The internal consistency and construct validity of the FaB-FC were studied among 64 community-dwelling adults aged 60 and over. The concurrent validity and test–retest reliability of the FaB-FC were respectively examined among subsamples including 31 bilingual and 33 unilingual participants. Results: The FaB-FC showed good concurrent validity with the original FaB (ICC2u2009=u20090.94; 0.87–0.97), as well as good test–retest reliability (ICC2u2009=u20090.94; 0.88–0.97). The FaB-FC also demonstrated high internal consistency (αu2009=u20090.91). Moreover, analyses showed significant associations of the FaB-FC scores with fear of falling and balance confidence scores, attesting to its construct validity. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that the FaB-FC has sound psychometric properties. Since falls are associated with multiple risk factors, including behavioral factors, the FaB-FC is undoubtedly a relevant assessment tool for clinicians and researchers working toward fall prevention among French-speaking community-dwelling seniors. Implications for Rehabilitation Fall-related behaviors should be addressed in the assessment of community-dwelling seniors’ fall risks. Like the original FaB, the French Canadian version of the tool (FaB-FC) is valid and reliable for assessing fall-related behaviors. The FaB-FC is a relevant complementary assessment tool for identifying seniors at risk for falls. The FaB-FC could also be useful in guiding fall prevention interventions and measuring the impact of these interventions on seniors’ behaviors.