Lack Of Evidence That Fall Prevention Programs Work, UK

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Main Category: Seniors / Aging
Also Included In: Bones / Orthopaedics;  Public Health
Article Date: 23 Dec 2007 - 0:00 PDT

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According to a study published in bmj.com, there is scant evidence that fall prevention programs utilized by the NHS (National Health Service) are effective in reducing the total number of fallers or fall related injuries.

For elderly people falls are a significant health problem. The National Service Framework for Older People and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommend multifactorial fall prevention programs as an effective way to lower the number of falls in the UK. Throughout the NHS fall clinics have now been introduced.

How effective is this strategy?

Researchers from the Universities of Warwick and Oxford studied 19 trials involving 6,397 people that analyzed multiple risk factors for falling and the provision of treatments to address these risk factors. The trials were of varying standards.

According to the researchers, no compelling evidence of benefit from this type of intervention was found. The total number of people who had at least one fall, the total number of those who had fall-related injuries, and the number who used health services did not fall.

The authors believe that interventions that actually provide treatments may be better than those that only provide knowledge and referral. They stress that this is their belief and remains uncertain.

This review is more comprehensive than previous ones, including more trials and more participants, the researchers say. It found scarce evidence that multifactorial fall prevention programs are successful in lowering the number of fallers or fall-related injuries.

They concluded that there should be a large scale definitive evaluation to assess clinical and cost-effectiveness of this type of intervention.

"Multifactorial assessment and targeted intervention for preventing falls and injuries among older people in community and emergency care settings: systematic review and meta-analysis"
S Gates, S E Lamb, J D Fisher, M W Cooke, Y H Carter
BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.39412.525243.BE (published 18 December 2007)
Click here to view abstract online

Written by - Christian Nordqvist
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