Personal emergency alarms: do health outcomes differ for purchasers and nonpurchasers?

Figures & data

Table 1. Reasons for Study Withdrawal.

Reason	Purchasers	Non-purchasers	Total
Unable to contact	11	4	15
Moved to residential	6	1	7
No longer wanted to take part	2	0	2
Commenced palliative care	3	0	3
Moved interstate	1	0	1
Deceased	11	2	13
Total	34	7	41

Table 2. Demographics, Medical Conditions, and Falls History.

Demographics	Purchasers n (%/SD)	Nonpurchasers n (%/SD)	p-value
Age (years)	82.63 (SD 6.7)	79.35 (SD 6.3)	≤ .001
Gender (% female)	129 (82.2%)	47 (72.3%)	.099
Living arrangement (% lives alone)	119 (75.8%)	53 (81.5%)	.351
Receiving formal home care services	90 (57.3%)	40 (61.5%)	.562
Level of Education
Primary	36 (22.9%)	10 (15.4%)	.053
Secondary	81 (51.6%)	28 (43.1%)
Tertiary	40 (25.5%)	27 (41.5%)
Medical Conditions
Arthritis	105 (66.9%)	39 (60.0%)	.329
Heart condition	46 (29.3%)	15 (23.1%)	.345
Respiratory condition	46 (29.3%)	20 (30.8%)	.827
Diabetes	33 (21.0%)	15 (23.1%)	.735
Depression	21 (13.4%)	16 (24.6%)	.041
Osteoporosis	54 (34.4%)	20 (30.8%)	.602
Prescription Medications
5 or more	85 (54.5%)	35 (53.8%)	.931
Fall History
Fallen in past 12 months	97 (61.8%)	40 (61.5%)	.973
Past fall resulted in injury requiring medical attention	72 (74.2%)	26 (65.0%)	.277
Past fall resulted in lie over 30 minutes	31 (32.0%)	10 (25.0%)	.445

Table 3. How Assistance Was Gained in Each Emergency.

How assistance was gained	Purchasers	Nonpurchasers
Used alarm	27 (32.5%)	0 (0.0%)
Used phone to call family, ambulance, or doctor	22 (26.5%)	25 (35.2%)
Someone else present during emergency	25 (30.1%)	33 (46.5%)
Was able to get up by self after fall	3 (3.6%)	0 (0.0%)
Waited until able to crawl to furniture to pull themselves up	3 (3.6%)	10 (14.0%)
Waited for someone to come over	1 (1.2%)	0 (0.0%)
Called out until someone heard them	1 (1.2%)	1 (1.4%)
Unknown participant could not remember what happened	1 (1.2%)	1 (1.4%)
Passed out and found by friend	0 (0.0%)	1 (1.4%)
Total	83 (100%)	71 (100%)

Table 4. Time Spent on Floor After Experiencing an Emergency.

Time on floor (minutes)	Purchasers	Nonpurchasers
0	48 (57.8%)	38 (53.5%)
1–14	11 (13.2%)	12 (16.9%)
15–30	17 (20.1%)	17 (23.9%)
31–59	4 (4.8%)	3 (4.2%)
60 +	3 (3.6%)	1 (1.4%)
Total	83 (100%)	71 (100%)

Table 5. Change in Health Outcomes.

	Pre	Post	Pre–post change	p-value
Purchasers
MFES	8.49 (1.6)	7.76 (2.0)	−0.73 (1.6)	≤ .001
PWI total	80.0 (12.8)	72.1 (15.9)	−7.9 (14.8)	≤ .001
PWI safety	8.2 (1.7)	7.8 (2.1)	−4 (2.1)	.026
PWI future security	8.3 (1.8)	7.7 (2.1)	−0.6 (2.2)	.002
LSNS	17.2 (5.7)	16.9 (5.9)	−0.4 (4.8)	.357
Nonpurchasers
MFES	8.42 (1.4)	7.75 (1.7)	−0.67 (1.6)	.004
PWI total	73.5 (16.8)	63.4 (22.2)	−10.1 (18.5)	.001
PWI safety	8.0 (1.6)	6.6 (2.6)	−1.3 (2.5)	.007
PWI future security	7.7 (2.1)	6.1 (3.0)	−1.6 (2.9)	.001
LSNS	16.3 (6.2)	14.6 (5.9)	−1.8 (5.7)	.037