World guidelines for falls prevention and management for older adults

World guidelines for falls prevention and management for older adults: a global initiative

Montero-Odasso, Manuel (Lawson Health Research Institute; University of Western Ontario)
van der Velde, Nathalie (Amsterdam Public Health; Amsterdam UMC)
Martin, Finbarr C. (King’s College London)
Petrovic, Mirko (Universiteit Gent)
Tan, Maw Pin (University of Malaya)
Ryg, Jesper (Odense University Hospital; University of Southern Denmark)
van der Cammen, T.J.M. (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering; TU Delft Applied Ergonomics and Design; Erasmus MC)
Song, Y. (TU Delft Emerging Materials)
Jellema, A.H. (TU Delft Applied Ergonomics and Design)

Industrial Design Engineering

2022

BACKGROUND: falls and fall-related injuries are common in older adults, have negative effects on functional independence and quality of life and are associated with increased morbidity, mortality and health related costs. Current guidelines are inconsistent, with no up-to-date, globally applicable ones present. OBJECTIVES: to create a set of evidence- and expert consensus-based falls prevention and management recommendations applicable to older adults for use by healthcare and other professionals that consider: (i) a person-centred approach that includes the perspectives of older adults with lived experience, caregivers and other stakeholders; (ii) gaps in previous guidelines; (iii) recent developments in e-health and (iv) implementation across locations with limited access to resources such as low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: a steering committee and a worldwide multidisciplinary group of experts and stakeholders, including older adults, were assembled. Geriatrics and gerontological societies were represented. Using a modified Delphi process, recommendations from 11 topic-specific working groups (WGs), 10 ad-hoc WGs and a WG dealing with the perspectives of older adults were reviewed and refined. The final recommendations were determined by voting. RECOMMENDATIONS: all older adults should be advised on falls prevention and physical activity. Opportunistic case finding for falls risk is recommended for community-dwelling older adults. Those considered at high risk should be offered a comprehensive multifactorial falls risk assessment with a view to co-design and implement personalised multidomain interventions. Other recommendations cover details of assessment and intervention components and combinations, and recommendations for specific settings and populations. CONCLUSIONS: the core set of recommendations provided will require flexible implementation strategies that consider both local context and resources.

aged
clinical practice
consensus
falls
global
guidelines
injury
older people
recommendations
world

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a4c2693e-44fa-44d9-81d4-891faba9ca8f

https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac205

0002-0729

Age and Ageing, 51 (9)

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2022 , Manuel Montero-Odasso, Nathalie van der Velde, Finbarr C. Martin, Mirko Petrovic, Maw Pin Tan, Jesper Ryg, T.J.M. van der Cammen, Y. Song, A.H. Jellema, More Authors