Public defence: Rune Solli
Rune Solli will defend his thesis "Advancing fall prevention in home care with clinical decision support" for the PhD in Health Sciences.
Rune Solli will defend his thesis "Advancing fall prevention in home care with clinical decision support" for the PhD in Health Sciences.
Trial lecture: Delivery of physical exercise to prevent falls in older adults – effectiveness and implementation.
The ordinary opponents are:
The leader of the public defense is Associate Professor Hege Bentzen, OsloMet.
The main supervisor is Professor Therese Brovold, OsloMet. The co-supervisors are Associate Professor Nina Rydland Olsen, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and Senior Researcher Linda Aimee Hartford Kvæl, OsloMet.
This PhD project focuses on how Clinical Decision Support (CDS) can help healthcare practitioners (HCPs) identify and manage fall risk among older adults in Norwegian municipal home care services. Falls are a major public health issue, potentially leading to severe consequences for individuals and high costs for healthcare systems.
While effective fall prevention interventions exist, their implementation remains inconsistent. Falls often go underreported, as older adults may not volunteer this information, and HCPs often fail to ask. To address this, the thesis evaluates the potential of CDS to improve fall prevention practices by supporting HCPs in identifying and managing fall risk.
The research includes three studies. A systematic review (Study I) found that CDS may improve HCPs’ adherence to fall prevention recommendations and likely helps prevent falls, particularly in hospitals, residential care settings, and in patients aged 80 years or older. CDS may also reduce falls in community-dwelling older adults, though with potentially smaller effects.
A chart review (Study II) highlighted gaps in fall prevention practices within municipal home care services. Only 40 percent of patients at high risk of falling and 22 percent of patients at intermediate risk of falling received appropriate interventions.
The third study evaluated the feasibility of three key questions (3KQ) as a tool for identifying fall risk among older adults in Norwegian municipal home care services. The 3KQ was selected based on findings from Studies I and II and appeared to be practical for Norwegian home care services.
While the 3KQ can raise awareness about falls and support decision-making, it does not fully address the connection between the identification of fall risk and follow-up interventions.
This thesis demonstrates both the challenges and potential of implementing CDS to improve fall prevention in home care services. It suggests there may be a gap in fall prevention practices within home care, where some individuals at increased risk of falling appear not to receive appropriate interventions.
The findings point to the need for more systematic fall risk screening and targeted follow-up interventions but suggests that CDS alone may not be sufficient. Future research should focus on refining CDS tools like to 3KQ and explore how to better link fall risk screening with follow-up care to improve fall prevention practices.