Publications by authors named "Maria Bjerk"

Article Synopsis
  • *The study involved 14 interviews with managers, revealing themes related to organizational mechanisms, positive leadership behaviors, and the need for persistence in implementation.
  • *Findings suggest that clear roles for managers, leveraging existing systems, and fostering a supportive environment are essential for successful fall prevention initiatives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Falls among older adults represent a major health hazard across the world. In 2022, the World Falls Guidelines was published, summarising research evidence and expert recommendations on how to prevent falls, but we need more knowledge on how the evidence can be successfully implemented into routine practice. In this study we used an implementation strategy co-created by healthcare providers, older adults who had fallen and researchers, to facilitate uptake of fall prevention recommendations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Despite substantial research evidence indicating the effectiveness of a range of interventions to prevent falls, uptake into routine clinical practice has been limited by several implementation challenges. The complexity of fall prevention in municipality health care underlines the importance of flexible implementation strategies tailored both to general determinants of fall prevention and to local contexts. This cluster-randomised trial (RCT) investigates the effectiveness of a tailored intervention to implement national recommendations on fall prevention among older home-dwelling adults compared to usual practice on adherence to the recommendations in health professionals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Long-term sick leave is a serious concern in developed countries and the cost of sickness absence and disability benefits cause major challenges for both the individual and society as a whole. Despite an increasing body of research reported by existing systematic reviews, there is uncertainty regarding the effect on return to work of workrelated interventions for workers with different diagnoses. The objective of this systematic review was to assess and summarize available research about the effects of work-related interventions for people on long-term sick leave and those at risk of long-term sick leave.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Unplanned readmission may result in consequences for both the individual and society. The transition of patients from hospital to postdischarge settings often represents a discontinuity of care and is considered crucial in the prevention of avoidable readmissions. In older patients, physical decline and malnutrition are considered risk factors for readmission.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

: One of the most effective interventions to prevent falls is exercise. A commonly used program that prevents falls is the Otago Exercise Programme (OEP). Despite this, user-based knowledge of its applicability in real-world settings for older adults who are dependent on formal care in their homes is lacking.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Falls are a global public health concern. Physiotherapists are a key resource in this context, but there is sparse knowledge about how they perceive their role in the primary care setting. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to explore physical therapists' (PTs) view of how they experience and perceive their role working with fall prevention in a community care setting.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important outcome in economic evaluations of health care interventions for older adults. The aim of this study was to compare two commonly used preference-based utility measures, SF-6D and EQ-5D, to provide knowledge on their applicability when evaluating falls prevention interventions in primary health care.

Methods: The study is a secondary analysis of longitudinal data from a randomised controlled trial, which included 155 older home care recipients participating in a falls prevention intervention in Norway.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Falls in older adults are an increasingly important public health concern due to the expanding older population and contribute considerably to the global burden of disease. Home care recipients have a high incidence of falls and a low level of health-related quality of life (HRQOL). In this understudied group of older adults, exercise interventions could prevent falls, promote HRQOL and enable healthy ageing in the longer term.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Aerobic exercise is an effective treatment to improve aerobic capacity following stroke and might also improve cognitive impairments in sub-acute stroke survivors. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of high-intensity aerobic exercise on cognitive impairments in sub-acute stroke survivors.

Methods: A pilot, randomised controlled trial on the effects of aerobic exercise on cognitive impairments of stroke patients in the sub-acute (1-3 months) phase was conducted.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: falls have serious consequences for quality of life (QOL) and contribute substantially to the global burden of disease. Home care is an important arena to address falls prevention and QOL, but this vulnerable group of older adults is underrepresented in health research. This study explores the effects of a falls prevention exercise programme on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), physical function and falls self-efficacy in older fallers receiving home care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Falls and injuries in older adults have significant consequences and costs, both personal and to society. Although having a high incidence of falls, high prevalence of fear of falling and a lower quality of life, older adults receiving home care are underrepresented in research on older fallers. The objective of this study is to determine the associations between health-related quality of life (HRQOL), fear of falling and physical function in older fallers receiving home care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Falls and fall-related injuries in older adults are associated with great burdens, both for the individuals, the health care system and the society. Previous research has shown evidence for the efficiency of exercise as falls prevention. An understudied group are older adults receiving home help services, and the effect of a falls prevention programme on health-related quality of life is unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessiongtacggmkl3mg2ba9qo439m4uor1nh9jb): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once