JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

About one in three adults age 65 and older falls annually. Exercise interventions are effective in reducing fall risk and fall rate among older adults. In 2020, startup company, Age Bold Inc., disseminated the Bold Fall Prevention Program, aiming to reduce falls among older adults through a remotely-delivered, digital exercise program.

Objective:

We conducted a feasibility study to assess the delivery of Bold's Fall Prevention Program remotely and evaluate the program's impact on two primary outcomes—annualized fall rate and weekly minutes of physical activity—over six months follow-up.

Methods:

Older adults at high risk of falling were screened and recruited for the feasibility study via nationwide digital advertising strategies. Self-reported outcomes were collected via surveys administered at the time of enrollment and after three and six months. Responses were used to calculate changes in annualized fall rate and minutes of physical activity per week.

Results:

We enrolled 65 participants, including 73.8% women and with an average age of 72.6 years. Of these, 40 (61.5%) responded to at least one follow-up survey at either 3- or 6-months, 20 (30.8%) responded to both follow-up surveys, and 25 (38.5%) were lost to follow-up. Among all participants who completed at least one follow-up survey, annualized falls per year decreased by 46% [incidence rate ratio (IRR)=0.54; 95% CI, 0.32-0.90; N=40] and weekly minutes of physical activity increased by 182% (ratio change=2.82; 95% CI, 1.26-6.37; N=35) from baseline. Among only 6-month survey responders (N=31), annualized fall rate decreased by 28% (IRR=0.72; 95% CI, 0.42-1.23) from baseline to 6-months. Weekly minutes of physical activity increased by 206% (ratio change=3.06; 95% CI, 1.43-6.55) from baseline to 6-months (N=30).

Conclusions:

The Bold Fall Prevention Program is an impactful and scalable strategy to reduce the burden of injurious falls among older adults.