Exploring the feasibility of using a bedside device to help prevent nighttime falls
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Exploring the feasibility of using a bedside device to help prevent nighttime falls

Kevin Edward Anthony Head of clinical research and evaluation, Nottingham CityCare Partnership CIC, Research and Evaluation, Nottingham, England
Laura Houten Advanced clinical research practitioner, Nottingham CityCare Partnership CIC, Nottingham, England
Pip Logan Professor of rehabilitation research and occupational therapist, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To enhance your understanding of nighttime falls risk in older people

  • To read the findings of a feasibility study that used a falls prevention device to help prevent nighttime falls in older people living at home

  • To consider the implications of using technological interventions in healthcare practice

Background Older people living in the community are at risk of preventable nighttime falls. Technology can support falls interventions but there is a lack of research into this area. A new bedside device called Bide senses movement and changes in light levels and plays a prerecorded message encouraging the user to follow falls prevention advice when trying to mobilise at night.

Aim To test the feasibility of using the Bide device in a community health service.

Method Healthcare workers were trained in the use of the Bide device and asked to identify potential participants. The research team subsequently recruited participants, provided them with a device and explained how to use it. After four weeks, participants took part in face-to-face semi-structured interviews regarding the acceptability of the device. Participants’ fear of falling was calculated before and after the intervention using the Falls Efficacy Scale-International.

Findings The Bide device appeared to increase patients’ confidence to mobilise at night and no adverse events were reported from its use. The device was generally found to be acceptable and easy to use, although one participant found it irritating. Healthcare workers flagged up very few potential participants to the research team, which may have been due to workload pressures and a disconnect between healthcare workers and technology.

Conclusion It appears feasible to study the use of the Bide device for nighttime falls prevention in the community. To enhance recruitment, a member of the research team may be embedded in the clinical team with the aim of proactively identifying potential participants.

Nursing Older People. doi: 10.7748/nop.2024.e1484

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

kevin.anthony@nhs.net

Conflict of interest

None declared

Anthony KE, Houten L, Logan P (2024) Exploring the feasibility of using a bedside device to help prevent nighttime falls. Nursing Older People. doi: 10.7748/nop.2024.e1484

Acknowledgement

The developers of the device, Peak MedTek Ltd, loaned devices for the study period. They did not contribute to study design, performance or analysis. The research team was not associated with Peak MedTek Ltd before conducting this study

Funding

This feasibility study was made possible by funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research

Published online: 23 October 2024

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