Effect of lifestyle education based on Pender model on frailty outcomes in community-dwelling older adults

Background: Frailty is a complex syndrome in which the reduction of physiological reserves in various organs increases vulnerability to stressors and negative health outcomes in the elderly. Considering that no specific intervention based on Pender lifestyle education has been performed to reduce the outcomes of this syndrome, the present study aims to determine the Effect of lifestyle education based on Pender model on frailty outcomes in community-dwelling older adults. Methods: In this single-blind randomized clinical trial, 50 eligible elderly were selected and randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The elderly in the intervention group received 6 training sessions based on the dimensions of Pender lifestyle. The control group did not receive any intervention but was given an educational booklet at the end of the study. Outcomes measured in this study included Activities of daily living, fear of falling, physical function and hospitalization. Data were collected before the intervention and 3 months after the intervention. Results: there was no significant difference between the mean outcome scores of the two groups before the study. However, intervention group scores for fear of falling (32.54 ± 11.275 vs. 25.16 ± 5.764), physical activity (1104.71 ± 1460.387 vs. 1771.72 ± 1168.229) and physical function (7.50 ± 2.654 vs. 8.64 ± 2.430) were significantly higher than control group 3 month after intervention. There was no significant difference between the scores of daily life activities (1.319 5. 5.36 vs. 5.77 5. 5.80) and the number of readmissions (25% vs. 20%) in the intervention and control groups. Conclusion: Providing lifestyle education based on Pender model can reduce the fear of falling, physical activity and physical function in frailty people, but this intervention could not significantly improve the ability of the elderly to perform activities of daily living and reduce elderly readmitted to the hospital. However, further studies with longer follow-up periods are needed to measure the effect of the intervention on all outcomes of frailty syndrome.