Fall Prevention: Relatedness of Adherence to Recommendations and Self-Rated Knowledge Kaitlin Gibson David Paul Greene Pat L. Sample Cheri Cabrera ABSTRACT. Objective: Our intent was to explore the relationships between adher- ence to fall-prevention recommendations and client characteristics possibly related to adherence. Method: We used secondary data originally collected from the initial interviews/home evaluations and follow-up interviews of 120 participants from a pre- viously completed community-based fall-prevention program. Correlations of data from all participants explored relationships between adherence to fall-prevention rec- ommendations and initial concern for falling, self-rated health, and self-rated fall- prevention knowledge. To better understand whether participants gained understand- ing of the impact of adherence to recommendations, a content analysis was performed on narrative responses to a question regarding the effect of adherence to recommen- dations on one’s ability to independently perform daily tasks. Results: Considering the entire sample, concern about falling was related to adherence to fall-prevention recommendations, but adherence and increased self-rated fall-prevention knowledge was correlated only in a subgroup of participants who identified helpful attributes of recommendations in their narrative responses. Conclusion: Occupational therapy fall-prevention recommendations cannot invoke change without adherence. The re- lationship demonstrated here between adherence to fall-prevention recommendations and increased self-rated fall-prevention knowledge in participants verbalizing positive aspects of following the recommendations supports previous findings and suggests that an understanding of the benefit may be associated with adherence to fall-prevention recommendations, hopefully leading to fewer falls. KEYWORDS. Fall prevention, education, recommendations, adherence Kaitlin Gibson, David Paul Greene, and Pat L. Sample are affiliated with the Department of Occupational Therapy, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. Cheri Cabrera is affiliated with the Home First Inc., Broomfield Injury Prevention and Independent Living Program, Broomfield, Colorado. Address correspondence to: David Paul Greene, PhD, Professor, Department of Occupa- tional Therapy, Colorado State University, 800 Oval Drive, Fort Collins, CO 80523 (E-mail: dgreene@cahs.colostate.edu). Physical & Occupational Therapy in Geriatrics, Vol. 28(3), 2010 Available online at http://informahealthcare.com/potg C  2010 by Informa Healthcare USA, Inc. All rights reserved. doi: 10.3109/02703181.2010.509541 215