The Population Approach to Falls Injury Prevention in Older People: Findings of a Two Community Trial

Overview

Journal BMC Public Health

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Public Health

Date 2010 Feb 20

PMID 20167124

Citations 4

Authors

Rod J McClure

Karen Hughes

Cizao Ren

Kirsten McKenzie

Uta Dietrich

Paul Vardon

Elizabeth Davis

Beth Newman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: There is a sound rationale for the population-based approach to falls injury prevention but there is currently insufficient evidence to advise governments and communities on how they can use population-based strategies to achieve desired reductions in the burden of falls-related injury. The aim of the study was to quantify the effectiveness of a streamlined (and thus potentially sustainable and cost-effective), population-based, multi-factorial falls injury prevention program for people over 60 years of age.

Methods: Population-based falls-prevention interventions were conducted at two geographically-defined and separate Australian sites: Wide Bay, Queensland, and Northern Rivers, NSW. Changes in the prevalence of key risk factors and changes in rates of injury outcomes within each community were compared before and after program implementation and changes in rates of injury outcomes in each community were also compared with the rates in their respective States.

Results: The interventions in neither community substantially decreased the rate of falls-related injury among people aged 60 years or older, although there was some evidence of reductions in occurrence of multiple falls reported by women. In addition, there was some indication of improvements in fall-related risk factors, but the magnitudes were generally modest.

Conclusions: The evidence suggests that low intensity population-based falls prevention programs may not be as effective as those that are intensively implemented.

Citing Articles

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The impact of community-based interventions for the older population: a quasi-experimental study of a hip-fracture prevention program in Norway.

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Agudelo-Botero M, Giraldo-Rodriguez L, Murillo-Gonzalez J, Mino-Leon D, Cruz-Arenas E PLoS One. 2018; 13(2):e0192926.

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Risk factors for injury in a national cohort of 87,134 Thai adults.

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