Discipline of General Practice, School of Population Health and Clinical Practice, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
J Clin Nurs. 2012 Sep;21(17-18):2617-25. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2011.03990.x. Epub 2012 Mar 7.
This study aimed to understand older people's perceptions of their and other older peoples' falls risk, to increase understanding of why older people might not believe falls are relevant to themselves.
One-third of the people aged≥65 years (older people) fall yearly. Many older people do not participate in falls prevention programmes because they purport they are not personally vulnerable.
A qualitative study was conducted, guided by the tenets of grounded theory.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine community-dwelling older people living in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia. The interview explored participant's direct and indirect experience of falling, their perceived chance of falling in the next 12 months and that of others of the same age and sex to themselves and their reasons for this.
Participants carefully presented themselves as being 'not the type who fall', who they view negatively. They believed their or their friends past or future falls were (or could be) because of factors outside of their personal control or because they were not paying attention at that moment of falling, as opposed to being the type of person who falls. They used these explanations as strategies to maintain or protect their identity as being physically competent.
Older people know that falling can be viewed negatively. Falling is a threat to their identity as the type of person who does not fall. This explanation is consistent with self-presentation theory, where people use accounting strategies in social interaction to create a desired impression.
Falls prevention messages are likely to be rejected if the target group associate the message with a negative identity. These findings can assist nurses to understand older people's reluctance to engage in falls prevention and can stimulate thinking regarding alternative engagement strategies.
本研究旨在了解老年人对自身和他人跌倒风险的看法，以增加对老年人为何可能认为跌倒与自身无关的理解。
三分之一的 65 岁及以上老年人（老年人）每年都会跌倒。许多老年人不参加防跌倒计划，因为他们认为自己没有个人易感性。
本研究采用扎根理论指导的定性研究方法进行。
对居住在南澳大利亚阿德莱德大都市区的 9 名社区老年人进行半结构式访谈。访谈内容探讨了参与者直接和间接的跌倒经历、他们在未来 12 个月内跌倒的可能性以及与他们年龄和性别相同的其他人的跌倒可能性，以及他们这样认为的原因。
参与者谨慎地将自己描述为“不会跌倒的人”，他们对自己持负面看法。他们认为自己或朋友过去或未来的跌倒归因于个人无法控制的因素，或者是因为他们在跌倒时没有注意，而不是因为他们是那种容易跌倒的人。他们使用这些解释作为策略来维护或保护自己身体能力的身份。
老年人知道跌倒可能会被负面看待。跌倒对他们作为不会跌倒的人的身份构成威胁。这一解释与自我呈现理论一致，即在社会互动中，人们使用会计策略来创造期望的印象。
如果目标群体将信息与负面身份联系起来，防跌倒信息很可能会被拒绝。这些发现可以帮助护士了解老年人不愿意参与防跌倒计划的原因，并激发关于替代参与策略的思考。
