Learning from fall-related interventions for older people at home: A scoping review

This scoping review aims to provide a better understanding about the fall-related interventions, and the con-ditions which stand out as effective in decreasing fall risks of older people at home. A total of 28 peer-reviewed papers were included when they reported interventions with an incidence of falls or fall-risk as a primary outcome for older people, focusing on the home environment, from 8 databases. Qualitative exami-nation was complemented by quantitative risk ratio analysis where it was feasible. The interventions regard-ing incidence of falls had a mean risk rate of 0.75; moreover, interventions using multiple strategies were found relatively successful. The interventions regarding fall risk had a mean hazard rate of 0.66. A consider-able number of no-effect ratios were evident. Combining education, home assessment or improvement, and use of technology with implementation by health service experts appears to be the most promising interven-tion strategy to reduce falls.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Automated summary

This scoping review provides a better understanding of fall-related interventions for older people and identifies effective conditions for reducing fall risks at home. The study found that interventions using multiple strategies were relatively successful, and combining education, home assessment or improvement, and use of technology with implementation by health service experts appeared to be the most promising intervention strategy for reducing falls.