Key messages:
- The world’s population is ageing. Falls and related injuries are increasingly common, making their prevention and management a critical global challenge.
- Many falls can be prevented. Fall and injury prevention needs multidisciplinary management.
- Engaging older adults is essential for prevention of falls and injuries: understanding their beliefs, attitudes and priorities about falls and their management is crucial to successfully intervening.
- Managing many of the risk factors for falls (e.g. gait and balance problems) have wider benefits beyond falls prevention such as improved intrinsic capacities (physical and mental health), functioning and quality of life.
- Estimates of risk of future falls can be done by trained clinicians with simple resources.
- Multidomain interventions (i.e., a combination of interventions tailored to the individual), when delivered, are effective for reducing the rate of falls in high-risk community-dwelling older adults.
- In care homes and hospital settings all older adults should be considered as high risk and a standard comprehensive assessment followed by multidomain interventions should be considered.
- Vitamin D supplementation to prevent falls should be reserved for those at risk of vitamin D deficiency.
- Modification to the approaches for assessment and interventions may be needed for older adults with certain medical conditions associated with an increased likelihood of falling.