This section explains commonly used terms in injury prevention, safety promotion and falls prevention. These terms are used throughout this website.
A community can be defined in many ways, including the following:
A fall is an event that results in a person coming to rest inadvertently on the ground or floor or other lower level [29, 31].
This definition includes falls where the person inadvertently comes to rest in furniture, against a wall or other objects [29, 31] but excludes falls resulting in an intentional change in position.
To allow a consistent approach to falls prevention in Queensland and comparisons at a national and international level, it is important a standard definition for falls is used in all settings [29, 30].
Falls prevention is:
The basis of falls prevention is ‘prevention is better than cure’. Preventing falls costs less in terms of both health care system costs and personal costs compared with the consequences, treatment and rehabilitation following a fall [16, 37].
Falls prevention also includes falls injury prevention:
Falls prevention, like injury prevention and chronic disease prevention can occur at a number of different levels. These levels are:
The term ‘falls prevention’ is not recommended for use in materials that will be read by the target group [6]. Research has shown that this term is:
For more information on the appropriate language to use when communicating about falls prevention refer to key messages.
“Safety is a state in which hazards and conditions leading to physical injury, psychological or material harm are controlled in order to preserve the health and wellbeing of individuals and the community. It is an essential resource for every day life, needed by individuals and communities to realise their aspirations” [35]. Safety is a dynamic state rather than just an absence of injuries and threats. Safety encompasses:
“Because health and safety are fundamental rights of human beings, safety is a prerequisite for the maintenance and improvement of the health and welfare of any population. It is a basic need of human beings” [35].
Health promotion is defined by the World Health Organisation as the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health. Health promotion represents a comprehensive social and political process, it not only embraces actions directed at strengthening the skills and capabilities of individuals, but also action directed towards changing social, environmental and economic conditions so as to alleviate their impact on public and individual health. Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over the determinants of health and thereby improve their health. Participation is essential to sustain health promotion action. [222]
The World Health Organisation has developed a Health Promotion Glossary and more recently developed 10 New Terms for Health Promotion to reflect changes in practice. Both these documents can be accessed from The WHO Health Promotion Glossary webpage.
Safety promotion encourages an optimal level of safety by maintaining the conditions necessary to reach and sustain that level [35]. Safety requires:
Safety promotion is about achieving a positive culture of safety 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For preventing falls in older people, safety promotion means individuals, families, organisations, workplaces and governments all sharing the belief that falls are preventable and that it is worthwhile to invest time, money, energy and resources into preventing falls and promoting safety.
The term ‘safety promotion’ is preferred to ‘injury prevention’ as it is more readily understood and acted on by older people and stakeholders outside the health sector. For more information on the appropriate language to use when communicating about falls prevention refer to key messages.
Healthy active ageing is a positive term used to talk about action taken by older people to prevent falls and improve their overall health. The term ‘healthy active ageing’ is used because:
Effective falls prevention requires a collaborative, systematic, multi-strategic (also known as multifaceted) and multifactorial approach across the health continuum. This is reflected throughout the phases of the Queensland Stay On Your Feet® Community Good Practice model.
Collaborative
To work with another person, group or an agency with which there is not an immediate connection in order to achieve an outcome [74]. For example, this could involve local government, non-government-organisations, other businesses and health providers all working together to promote physical activity programs and transport options for older people.
Systematic
To be carried out in a methodical and organised manner according to a fixed plan or system [75]. For example, planned and managed falls prevention activities that work in line with the National Falls Prevention for Older People Plan: 2004 Onwards, State directions and any local business/organisation plans.
Multi-strategic
The science and art of employing political, economic, psychological, social and environmental actions in a carefully devised, elaborate and systematic plan to achieve a long-term goal [75]. For example, a multi-strategic falls prevention program may include:
Multi-factorial
Interventions that address several falls risk factors at the same time are known as multi-factorial, for example: health related issues such as physical activity, balance and vision and environmental hazards .
Multi-factorial strategies have been shown to be highly effective in reducing falls among community-dwelling older persons when they are based upon the results of risk factor assessment [31, 71, 76, 77, 78, 79]. The successful strategies include:
Currently, there is no conclusive evidence from randomised controlled trials that multi-factorial interventions can reduce falls in older people with cognitive impairment. There have been very few studies that have looked at this important sub-group [78].
Other languages