In 2022 Age and Ageing journal published the first World Falls Guideline for Prevention and Management for Older Adults. This has been highly and internationally acclaimed and we are delighted that the journal of the BGS has been able to provide a platform for this groundbreaking work.
The new guideline synthesises evidence, expert opinion and consideration of context to produce practical advice. Evidence on the causes of falls and interventions to reduce risk can be difficult to interpret. To relay the main messages of the guideline for the practitioner, A&A Editor Rowan Harwood has published this editorial to accompany the guidelines.
To add more context on this important area of work, A&A published this new themed collection of falls research. It includes key articles in the field of falls prevention, covering several topics including risk factors, effective interventions, older adult’s views, implementation issues and future perspectives. Lotte Seppala and Nathalie van der Velde were curators of this collection and have also written a commentary which draws on this body of work and poses the question: How to tackle the global challenge of falls? An excerpt is copied below.
Worldwide, falls and accompanying injuries are increasingly common, making their prevention and management a critical global challenge. The wealth of evidence to support interventions to prevent falls has recently (2022) been distilled in the first World Falls Guideline for Prevention and Management for Older Adults. The core of falls prevention includes (i) risk assessment and stratification, (ii) general recommendations on optimizing physical function and mobility for all and (iii) offering a holistic, multidomain intervention to older adults at high risk of falls, in which the older adult’s priorities, beliefs and resources are carefully considered. In recent decades, sustainable and adequately resourced falls prevention has proved challenging, although evidence suggests that sub-optimal implementation of falls prevention is ineffective. Future research should focus on understanding the most successful approaches for implementation. To further optimize falls prevention, recent developments include technological innovation to identify and prevent falls, including exergaming. Further work is warranted to understand how to best incorporate the concepts of frailty and sarcopenia in falls prevention and management. This themed collection includes key articles in the field of falls prevention, covering several topics including risk factors, effective interventions, older adult’s views, implementation issues and future perspectives.
Lotta J. Seppala
Nathalie van der Velde
Read the full commentary How to tackle the global challenge of falls? on the Age and Ageing website.
The Collection:
- Fall prevention in older people: past, present and future. Close JCT, Lord SR. Age Ageing. 2022;5
- World guidelines for falls prevention and management for older adults: a global initiative. Montero-Odasso M, van der Velde N, Martin FC, et al. Age Ageing. 2022;51.
- Longitudinal associations between falls and future risk of cognitive decline, the Motoric Cognitive Risk syndrome and dementia: the Einstein Ageing Study. Jayakody O, Blumen HM, Breslin M, et al. Age Ageing. 2022;51.
- Mobility screening for fall prediction in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA): implications for fall prevention in the decade of healthy ageing. Beauchamp MK, Kuspinar A, Sohel N, et al. Age Ageing. 2022;51.
- Atypical symptoms, SARS-CoV-2 test results and immunisation rates in 456 residents from eight nursing homes facing a COVID-19 outbreak. Age Ageing. Blain H, Gamon L, Tuaillon E, et al. 2021;50:641-8.
- The frequency and impact of undiagnosed benign paroxysmal positional vertigo in outpatients with high falls risk. Hawke LJ, Barr CJ, McLoughlin JV. Age Ageing. 2021;50:2025-30.
- Effects of gait adaptability training on falls and fall-related fractures in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nørgaard JE, Jorgensen MG, Ryg J, et al. Age Ageing. 2021;50:1914-24.
- Do home adaptation interventions help to reduce emergency fall admissions? A national longitudinal data-linkage study of 657,536 older adults living in Wales (UK) between 2010 and 2017. Hollinghurst J, Daniels H, Fry R, et al. Age Ageing. 2022;51.
- STOPPFall (Screening Tool of Older Persons Prescriptions in older adults with high fall risk): a Delphi study by the EuGMS Task and Finish Group on Fall-Risk-Increasing Drugs. Seppala LJ, Petrovic M, Ryg J, et al. Age Ageing. 2020.
- Impact of pain on reactive balance and falls in community-dwelling older adults: a prospective cohort study. Hirase T, Okubo Y, Menant J, et al. Age Ageing. 2020;49:982-8.
- Recent fall and high imminent risk of fracture in older men and women. Kim KM, Lui LY, Cummings SR. Age Ageing. 2022;51.Interventions to reduce falls in hospitals: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Morris ME, Webster K, Jones C, et al. Age Ageing. 2022;51.
- Protective or harmful? A qualitative exploration of older people's perceptions of worries about falling. Ellmers TJ, Wilson MR, Norris M, et al. Age Ageing. 2022;51.
- 'It is designed for everybody to find their own level and to improve themselves'; views of older people and instructors of the Falls Management Exercise (FaME) programme. Gumber L, Timmons S, Coupland C, et al. Age Ageing. 2022;51.
- The feasibility and acceptability of assessing and managing sarcopenia and frailty among older people with upper limb fracture. Ibrahim K, Mullee MA, Cox N, et al. Age Ageing. 2022;51.