Physiotherapy Programme & Centre for Healthy Ageing and Wellness, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
PLoS One. 2022 Jul 7;17(7):e0270741. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270741. eCollection 2022.
Falls is a common and debilitating condition among the older population, intensifying the need to educate older persons about falls. Technology advancement enables effective and efficient delivery of falls education to the older population. However, there is paucity of information on the perception of Malaysian older population on falls and their preferred website characteristics such as font size, design, layout, colour, navigation, and use of graphics or videos. Physiological changes in vision, cognition and psychomotor skills can affect how the older persons use the website. As Malaysia is a multicultural country, the needs of the website characteristics and falls perception of older persons may differ greatly. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of the older persons about falls and their desired website characteristics. Twenty-five community-living older persons (n = 25) of age 60 years and above were involved in the focus group discussions. NvivoTM software was used for data management and thematic analysis was undertaken. Emerging themes included 'Perceptions of falls in older persons', 'Actions taken when falls occurred', 'Perceived prevention strategies for falls' and 'End user requirements for falls educational website'. Falls were perceived as both an avoidable and a non-avoidable incident. Although the participants mentioned physical activity and home hazard modifications as strategies to prevent falls, they mainly discussed self-initiated precautionary approaches in falls prevention. Regarding desired website characteristics, the participants emphasized on easily readable text, appealing design, clear information, use of images/videos, and simple website navigation. Special requirements for colour selection and multi-language options were also raised. The delivery of falls education through website can be made possible by understanding the perception of older persons about falls and their requirements for the website. This is especially important as ethnic and cultural influences may play a role on their perceptions about falls and desired website characteristics.
跌倒在老年人群体中是一种常见且衰弱的疾病，因此需要加强对老年人进行跌倒预防的教育。技术进步使为老年人群体提供有效的跌倒预防教育成为可能。然而，目前关于马来西亚老年人对跌倒的认知以及他们对网站特征（如字体大小、设计、布局、颜色、导航以及使用图形或视频）的偏好的信息却很少。视觉、认知和运动技能的生理变化会影响老年人使用网站的方式。由于马来西亚是一个多元文化的国家，网站特征和老年人对跌倒的认知需求可能存在很大差异。本研究旨在探讨老年人对跌倒的认知及其对网站特征的期望。共有 25 名 60 岁及以上的社区居住老年人（n = 25）参与了焦点小组讨论。使用 NvivoTM 软件进行数据管理，并进行了主题分析。出现的主题包括“老年人对跌倒的认知”、“跌倒发生时的行动”、“预防跌倒的认知策略”和“跌倒教育网站的最终用户需求”。老年人认为跌倒既可以预防也可能无法预防。尽管参与者提到了体育活动和家庭危险物改造是预防跌倒的策略，但他们主要讨论了预防跌倒的自我预防措施。关于所需的网站特征，参与者强调文本易于阅读、设计吸引人、信息清晰、使用图像/视频以及简单的网站导航。还提出了对颜色选择和多语言选项的特殊要求。通过了解老年人对跌倒的认知以及他们对网站的要求，为他们提供网站上的跌倒教育是可行的。这一点尤为重要，因为种族和文化的影响可能会影响他们对跌倒的认知和对网站特征的期望。
