Going, going, gone — reducing falls

A systematic review of older people's perceptions of facilitators and barriers to participation in falls-prevention interventions

“…Much research has been done on which interventions are effective in preventing falls and there have been systematic reviews (Cryer 2001; Easterbrook et al 2001; Gillespie et al 2003; Parker, Gillespie and Gillespie 2005), but the little evidence of the factors that influence participation and long-term adherence has not previously been collated. Gender and ethnicity may affect attitudes towards and participation in falls-prevention strategies but there is no research on these factors (Horton 2002).…”

“…Falls are the leading cause of serious accidental injury (resulting in admission to hospital for four or more days) amongst people aged 65 or more years in the United Kingdom (Cryer 2001). Hip fractures are an especially grave complication of falls in older adults, and result in more hospital admissions than any other type of injury (Jensen et al 1982), which during 2000 cost the National Health Service (NHS) in England around £1.7 billion (Easterbrook et al 2001). There is a 10–20 per cent reduction in expected survival in the first year following a hip fracture (Cummings et al 1985; Magaziner et al 1989; Lu-Yao et al 1994), and roughly one-half of survivors never recover normal function (Magaziner et al 1989).…”

“…In recent years, much attention in health-promotion research and in health care has focused on falls and falls prevention among older adults. In particular, several trials and systematic reviews have investigated the effectiveness of various falls-prevention strategies, and shown that effective interventions include multi-disciplinary, multi-factorial risk-factor screening and intervention programmes, muscle strength and balance training, individually-tailored home exercise programmes, home modification, T'ai Chi programmes, medication review, and the follow up of patients who have fallen (Cryer 2001; Easterbrook et al 2001; Gillespie et al 2003; Parker, Gillespie and Gillespie 2005). Previous reviews have concentrated on quantitative evaluations of effectiveness, however, and have neglected the patients' views about the acceptability of the programmes.…”