Caitlin, Gwen, and Kathy Articles Analysis
Caitlin’s article analysis is a cohort study that examines 60 years and above who had taken a fall prevention program. According to a report in their analysis, 68% of the 1194 older people were investigated over a period of one year. The study took place in a Hong Kong city. Factors determining the uptake included the perception of risks as preventable or recoverable. The study concluded that participants who are less likely to attend the program tended to live in nursing homes and had low levels of education.
Gwen’s article is a performance study that explored the fall risk in the elderly population in a Medical Center’s Department for Geriatric Medicine in Germany. This study took place for a period of six months and assumed that patients had to be able to stand up and walk. Kathy’s article is ethnographic research that sought to evaluate views related to the risk of falling in older adults as understood by their children. The results of the study sought to identify the differences in perception and approaches to action between older and adult children. Three factors took center stage: parents’ actions shared actions and children’s actions.
In Kathy’s article, the risk factors identified were cognitive impairment, use of sedatives, multiple medical uses, history of falls, debility, weakness and alcohol use. The participants had to be 75 years of age or more and also required that the participant have at least one adult child within a radius of 150 km in an effort to examine the nature of communication between them. Finally, the study looked into elderly people who earned an annual income of 20,000 to over $100,000.
Gwen’s study was assessed with selected convectional assessments tests that were used to determine fall risk. The study also involved an interdisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Here, the old people were examined using sensor-based equipment which had the capability of predicting their falling risk. This involved testing their motion by asking the participants to make a 20 m walk while still at the hospital.
It also involved engaging Time and Go (TUG) test. Some of the factors investigated included their kinetic energy, the length of their steps and their number, pelvic sway across transversal axis. Standard deviation of their pace and the average of their steps were also thoroughly investigated
Summary
Kilian (2008, p.332) explains that ethnography has the advantage over other methodologies since it combines the aspects of events, specific encounters and understanding to a meaningful and comprehensive context. Thus Kathy’s article concludes that older people did not concentrate on the risks associated with falling.
The study also noted that there existed a wide difference in perception between the older adults and their children. Their children were more concerned with risks associated with their parents falling than the elderly were. For that reason, the study notes that their children had increased vigilance to their parents with all aspects of risks associated with falling.
Gwen’s article was not very successful since out of the initial 119 participants, only 46 managed to complete. Some of them had since died; others failed to respond to communication between the researchers and the third party respondents while a good number were untraceable or had lost their cognitive ability.
Marschollek, Rehwald, Wolfe, Gletzelt, Nemitz, Schwabedissen, , Schultz, M., (2011) thus admitted that their main aim of examining the predictive performance of new sensor-based method for assessing fall risks in comparison to conventional and established methods had a serious limitation due to the small number of participants who managed to complete the research. Wong, Woo, Cheung, and Pui-Yi (2011), concludes in Caitlin’s article analysis that the use of quantitative method followed by a qualitative analysis of data was successful. This mixed approach resulted in fewer complications since most of their follow-ups were successful.
References
Kilian, K., Salmon, A., & Ward-Griffin, C. (2008). Perceiving falls within a family context: A focused ethnographic approach. Canadian Journal on Aging, 27(4), 331. Web.
Marschollek, M., Rehwald, A., Wolfe, K. H., Gletzelt, M., Nemitz, G.Schwabedissen, H. M., Schultz, M., (2011), Sensors vs. experts – A performance comparison sensor-based fall risk assessment vs. conventional assessment, Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Wong, E.L., Woo, J., Cheung, A.W.L., & Pui-Yi, Y. (2011). Determinants of participation in a fall assessment and prevention programme among elderly fallers in Hong Kong: prospective cohort study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 67(4), 763-773.