Research highlights imperative for better falls prevention policy
An analysis of policy documents from 14 countries has found substantial deficiencies that limit their potential to prevent falls among community-dwelling older adults.
The MUARC study, published in the International Journal of Public Health, conducted a systematic scoping review of 107 policy-related articles published between 2005 and 2020.
The quality of 25 policies was also assessed using content criteria adapted from World Health Organization guideline for developing policies to prevent injuries and violence, as well as the New Zealand Government’s Policy Quality Framework.
Only 54% of polices met the WHO criteria, while 59% met the New Zealand criteria.
Problems highlighted by the research included “inconsistencies in policy content, structure, duration, policy framing and other characteristics which suggest countries may be at different levels of maturity in addressing falls and falls-related injury.”
Some falls prevention polices had either expired or may have lost status as a priority public health policy.
Lead author and MUARC PhD candidate, Aleksandra Natora, told MUARC Insight she was surprised by the number of policies that failed to meet the criteria.
“There were unprioritised intervention actions and a lack of quantified targets and objectives, which are elementary features of good policy. If you don’t have them, the policy is just swimming around the issue and not actionable to drive population health improvement,” she said.
The study identified that Australia had released a national falls prevention policy in 2005 but it lacked features of resourcing for implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and it was no surprise to find subsequent state and territory policies were also variable in quality and disconnected.
While the country’s population of 65-plus year-olds is meant to double between now and 2066, Natora said Australia is not alone in needing to act.
“The scoping review found that any country with ageing populations is facing falls as a major public health issue. Whether they’re formulating good policies or not, they’re all encouragingly trying to do something about it,” she said.
“The thing that’s consistent around the world is that falls affect one in three people over the age of 65. It’s a huge proportion of older people who fall. Ten per cent of those people who fall have injurious falls severe enough to require hospitalisation or even more severe impact. Many falls are fatal.
“The impact of falls can be catastrophic to an older person’s life, can shatter their independence, health and wellbeing, throw them into complex physical, mental and social health care needs, and increase their likelihood of going into residential aged care. All those things are preventable, as falls are preventable.” As governments, public health practitioners and researchers, we’ve got a huge imperative to make better policy to achieve falls prevention.
The article is open access and can be found here.
The publication of the article coincides with the Step Safely webinar series hosted by the WHO and MUARC in April 2022. The webinars supported the promotion and dissemination of the Step Safely Technical Package to enhance falls prevention among children, workers and older people. For more information and to view the webinars, please click here.