Evaluation and Development of Falls Prevention and Management in the Community for Older Adults

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted to test the effectiveness of two messaging types (positively vs negatively framed) via two target audiences (older vs younger adults). The RCT evaluates the effectiveness of the differently-framed messages delivered to older and younger adults in affecting people's attitude toward falls risk and motivating them to learn about preventing falls. Also, the potential of adult children acting as change agents to positively influence parents in preventing falls is explored. Older and younger adults who are eligible to participate in this study are randomly given one message. For older adults, the objective is to study which message is more effective in affecting their attitude towards falls risk and motivating them to learn about preventing falls. For younger adults, the aim is to understand which message is more effective in motivating them to learn about preventing falls for their parents. Hypotheses: H1: The negatively framed message is more effective than the positively framed counterpart in motivating older adults to find out about preventing falls. However, this effect decreases as the socioeconomic status decreases. H2: The negatively framed message is more effective than the positively framed counterpart in motivating younger adults to find out about preventing falls.