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Project Able Featured By Reuters Health Service

CenterPieces

CARAH's randomized trial, Project ABLE (Advancing Better Living for Elders), funded by the National Institute on Aging, and published in the May, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, was recently featured by Reuters Health service, the world's leading provider of medical and healthcare news.

This study tested a six-month intervention in which people received four 90-minute visits with an occupational therapist, as well as one 20-minute telephone contact, and one 90-minute physical therapy visit and home modifications provided by the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging. Of 319 men and women 70 years of age and older, half …

Determinants Of Balance Confidence In Community-Dwelling Elderly People, Janine Hatch, Kathleen M. Gill-Body, Leslie G. Portney

All PTHMS Faculty Publications

Background and Purpose. The fear of falling can have detrimental effects on physical function in the elderly population, but the relationship between a persons' confidence in the ability to maintain balance and actual balance ability and functional mobility is not known. The extent to which balance confidence can be explained by balance performance, functional mobility, and sociodemographic, psychosocial, and health-related factors was the focus of this study.

Subjects. The subjects were 50 community-dwelling elderly people, aged 65 to 95 years (X̄=81.7, SD=6.7).

Methods. Balance was measured using the Berg Balance Scale. Functional mobility was measured using the Timed Up & …