What works?
What works for falls prevention?
There is a lot of evidence, research articles, reports and guidelines about preventing falls. There are many evidence-based strategies that allow us to know for sure which interventions work to limit the number of falls, help reduce their severity, and what we can do about falls now and in the future.
Classifying falls prevention evidence
Falls prevention interventions that have been shown to work can be classified in two ways:
-
efficacy - when a project/program or intervention has been thoroughly researched in a controlled study environment and shown to work by reducing injuries [
90,
111], and is supported by strong evidence (levels I-III) [
29]
-
effectiveness - when the project/program or intervention has been shown to reduce injuries when put into practice in the real world [
90,
111].
Studies and research can be classified into levels of evidence from the strongest (Level I) to the weakest (Level IV). According to the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the four different levels of evidence are [29]:
-
Level I: Evidence from systematic reviews of all relevant randomised-controlled trials including Cochrane reviews, other systematic reviews and meta-analyses (Gold Standard) [
29]
-
Level II: Evidence from at least one properly designed randomised-control trial [
29]
-
Level III: Evidence obtained from well-designed controlled trials without randomisation; or from well-designed cohort or case-controlled analytic studies preferably from more than one centre or research group; or from multiple time series with or without the intervention. [
29]
-
Level IV: Opinions of respected authorities, based on clinical experience, descriptive studies or reports of expert committees [
29].
Finding falls prevention evidence
To find literature on what works for falls prevention, you might like to review the following:
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