Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wpx84 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-19T15:43:25.557Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evaluating The Safe Living Guide: A Home Hazard Checklist for Seniors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2010

Andrea Sorcinelli ,
Lynn Shaw ,
Andrew Freeman  and
Kim Cooper
Andrea Sorcinelli*
Affiliation:
Occupational Therapist
Lynn Shaw
Affiliation:
School of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario
Andrew Freeman
Affiliation:
School of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario
Kim Cooper
Affiliation:
School of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario
*
Requests for offprints should be sent to: / Les demandes de tirés-à-part doivent être adressées à: Andrea Sorcinelli, School of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario, Arthur and Sonia Labatt Health Sciences Building, Rm 200, London, ON N6G 1H1. (andreasorcinelli@hotmail.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility and reliability of a home hazard checklist published in Health Canada, The Safe Living Guide: A Guide to Home Safety for Seniors (2003).

Methods: 76 community-dwelling seniors evaluated the guide, and inter-rater reliability was determined through comparison of ratings of seniors and experts.

Results: Findings revealed that seniors found The Safe Living Guide useful in helping them identify hazards. On the majority of items in the checklist, agreement between raters was moderate to almost perfect, with an overall reliability of 0.509.

Practice Implications: This guide can be used with confidence by seniors and community-based caregivers for evaluating hazards and identifying opportunities in order to support and prolong safe, independent living in the community.

Résumé

Objectif: l'objectif de cette étude était l'évaluation de l'utilité et la fiabilité de la liste de dangers domestiques de Santé Canada, Chez soi en toute sécurité. Guide de sécurité des aînés

Méthodes: 76 aînées ont évalué le guide, et ces données ont été comparées avec les indices des thérapeutistes étudiantes afin de déterminer la fiabilité des évaluations des aînées.

Résultats: Les aînées ont trouvé le guide utile pour l'identification des dangers soi-même. Un accord modéré à presque parfait a été établi parmi les participants pour la plupart des points sur la liste, avec une fiabilité totale de 0,509.

Implications en pratique: Le guide peut être utilisé avec confiance par les aînées et les professionnels de soins communautaire pour l'évaluation des problèmes potentiels et l'identification des occasions pour aider et prolonger une vie indépendante et sans danger dans la communauté.

Keywords

agingself-assessment toolsreliabilityhome hazardsvieillissementoutils d'auto-évaluationfiabilitédangers domestiques
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , Summer/Été 2007 , pp. 127 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anemaet, W., & Moffa-Trotter, M. (1999). Promoting safety and function through home assessments. Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation, 15, 26–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carp, F.M., & Carp, A. (1981). It may not be the answer, it may be the question. Research on Aging, 3, 85–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapin, R., & Cox, E. (2001). Changing the paradigm: Strengths-based and empowerment-oriented social work with frail elders. Journal Gerontological Social Work, 36, 165–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cichetti, D.V. (1984). On a model for assessing the security of infantile attachment: Issues of observer reliability and validity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7, 149–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, J., Shaw, L., & Kahn, K. (2002). Use of The Safe Living Guide to identify fall hazards. Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists Conference, St. John, New Brunswick.Google Scholar
Clemson, L., Roland, M., & Cumming, R. (1997). Types of hazards in the homes of elderly people. Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, 17, 200–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clemson, L., Fitzgerald, M., Heard, R., & Cumming, R. (1999). Interrater reliability of a home fall hazard assessment tool. Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, 19, 82–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 37–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connell, B., & Wolf, S. (1997). Environmental and behavioural circumstances associated with falls at home among healthy elderly individuals. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 78, 179–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cwikel, J., & Fried, A. (1992). The social epidemiology of falls among community-dwelling elderly: Guidelines for prevention. Disability and Rehabilitation, 14, 113–121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cumming, R., Thomas, M., Szonyi, G., Salkeld, G., O'Neill, E., Westbury, C., et al. (1999). Home visits by an occupational therapist for assessment and modification of environmental hazards: A randomized trial of falls prevention. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 47, 1397–1402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
El-Faizy, M., & Reinsch, S. (1994). Home safety intervention for the prevention of falls. Physical and Occupational Therapy in Geriatrics, 12, 33–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleiss, J.L. (1971). Measuring nominal scale agreement among many raters. Psychological Bulletin, 76, 378–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, T., Williams, C., Robison, J., & Tinetti, M. (1999). A population-based study of environmental hazards in the homes of older persons. American Journal of Public Health, 89, 553–556.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gillespie, L.D., Gillespie, W.J., Robertson, M.C., Lamb, S.E., Cumming, R.G., & Rowe, B.H. (2006). Interventions for preventing falls in elderly people. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2. Retrieved 16 July 2006 from http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab00340.html.Google Scholar
Health Canada (1998). The economic burden of unintentional injury in Canada. Retrieved 1 Dec 2004 from http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/injury-bles/ebuic-febnc/index.html.Google Scholar
Health Canada, Division of Aging and Seniors (2003). The safe living guide: A guide to home safety for seniors. (2nd ed.). Ottawa: Author.Google Scholar
Johnson, M., Cusick, A., & Chang, S. (2001). Measure-screen: A short scale to measure fall risk in the home. Public Health Nursing, 18, 169–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kane, R.A., & Kane, R.L. (1981). Assessing the elderly. Lexington, MA: D.C. Health.Google Scholar
Knapp, T.R., & Brown, J.K. (1995). Focus on psychometrics: Ten measurement commandments that often should be broken. Research in Nursing and Health, 18, 465–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landis, J., & Koch, G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33, 159–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lange, M. (1996). The challenge of fall prevention in home care: A review of the literature. Home Healthcare Nurse, 14, 198–206.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Letts, L., & Marshall, L. (1995). Evaluating the validity and the consistency of the SAFER tool. Physical and Occupational Therapy in Geriatrics, 13,(4), 49–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKenzie, L., Byles, J., & Higginbotham, N. (2002a). A prospective community-based study of falls among older people in Australia: Frequency, circumstances, and consequences. OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health, 22, 143–151.Google Scholar
MacKenzie, L., Byles, J., & Higginbotham, N. (2002b). Reliability of the home falls and accidents screening tool for identifying older people at increased risk of falls. Disability and Rehabilitation, 24, 266–274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peel, N., Steinberg, M., & Williams, G. (2000). Home safety assessment in the prevention of falls among older people. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 24, 536–539.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pollack, N. (1993). Client-centered assessment. American Journal of Occupational therapy, 47, 298–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robnett, R., Hopkins, V., & Kimball, J. (2002). The safe at home: A quick home safety assessment. Physical and Occupational Therapy in Geriatrics, 20, 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevens, M., Holman, C., & Bennett, N. (2001). Preventing falls in older people: Impact of an intervention to reduce environmental hazards in the home. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 49, 1442–1447.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tanner, E. (2003). Assessing home safety in homebound older adults. Geriatric Nursing, 24, 250–256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tideiksaar, R. (2003). Best practice approach to fall prevention in community-living elders. Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation, 19, 199–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tinetti, M., Baker, D., McAvay, G., Claus, E., Garrett, P., Gottschalk, M., et al. (1994). A multifactorial intervention to reduce the risk of falling among elderly people living in the community. New England Journal of Medicine, 331, 822–827.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Veterans Affairs Canada (2004, January). You can prevent falls. Retrieved 16 July 2004 from http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/clients/sub.cfm?source=health/fallsp/factsheets/facsh6.Google Scholar