Life after falls prevention exercise – experiences of older people taking part in a clinical trial: a phenomenological study

BACKGROUND: There is little evidence about the lived experience of older people who have completed a falls prevention exercise programme and their life beyond their intervention. METHOD: i. being in a clinical trial involving exercise. ii. exercise once their falls prevention intervention had finished. Interpretative data analysis was informed by van Manen’s (1997) framework for phenomenological data. RESULTS: Analysis of interviews about experiences of participating in PreFIT and what happened once the falls intervention ended identified five themes: Happy to help; Exercise behaviours; “It keeps me going”; “It wasn’t a real fall”; and Loss. Participants did not continue their specific exercises after they had completed the intervention. They preferred walking as their main exercise, and none reported preventing falls as a motivator to continue exercising. Participant experiences suggest that they have their own ideas about what constitutes a fall and there is disparity between their interpretation and the definition used by healthcare professionals and researchers. CONCLUSION: Despite good intentions and perceived benefits, on-going participation in falls prevention exercises beyond a structured, supervised intervention was not a priority for these older people. Promoting continuation of falls prevention exercises post-intervention is just as challenging as promoting uptake to and adherence during exercise programmes. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-021-02037-9.