Never too old to learn: developing a home fire-safety intervention for older adults using Intervention Mapping

Older adults face an increased risk of injury or fatality in domestic home fires. The ageing population combined with the expectation that more people will continue to live independently instead of moving to a residential care home or nursing home, emphasizes the need to focus on promoting fire safety behaviours in this age group. Therefore, this dissertation focused on developing a behavioural intervention to improve home fire safety behaviour among older adults. Using Intervention Mapping, a needs assessment regarding fire safety behaviour was conducted followed by the systematic development and evaluation of a fire safety intervention.

This dissertation shows how Intervention Mapping is a useful protocol for developing fire safety interventions among older adult populations, contributing significantly to improving their safety and well-being in residential settings.

Read full thesis here.
Margo Karemaker, Maastricht University, 2024