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. 2022 Sep 2;51(9):afac205.
doi: 10.1093/ageing/afac205.

World guidelines for falls prevention and management for older adults: a global initiative

Manuel Montero-Odasso  1   2   3 Nathalie van der Velde  4   5 Finbarr C Martin  6 Mirko Petrovic  7 Maw Pin Tan  8   9 Jesper Ryg  10   11 Sara Aguilar-Navarro  12 Neil B Alexander  13 Clemens Becker  14 Hubert Blain  15 Robbie Bourke  16 Ian D Cameron  17 Richard Camicioli  18 Lindy Clemson  19 Jacqueline Close  20   21 Kim Delbaere  22 Leilei Duan  23 Gustavo Duque  24 Suzanne M Dyer  25 Ellen Freiberger  26 David A Ganz  27 Fernando Gómez  28 Jeffrey M Hausdorff  29   30   31 David B Hogan  32 Susan M W Hunter  33 Jose R Jauregui  34 Nellie Kamkar  1 Rose-Anne Kenny  16 Sarah E Lamb  35 Nancy K Latham  36 Lewis A Lipsitz  37 Teresa Liu-Ambrose  38 Pip Logan  39 Stephen R Lord  40   41 Louise Mallet  42 David Marsh  43 Koen Milisen  44   45 Rogelio Moctezuma-Gallegos  46   47 Meg E Morris  48 Alice Nieuwboer  49 Monica R Perracini  50 Frederico Pieruccini-Faria  1   2 Alison Pighills  51 Catherine Said  52   53   54 Ervin Sejdic  55 Catherine Sherrington  56 Dawn A Skelton  57 Sabestina Dsouza  58 Mark Speechley  3   59 Susan Stark  60 Chris Todd  61   62 Bruce R Troen  63 Tischa van der Cammen  64   65 Joe Verghese  66   67 Ellen Vlaeyen  44   68 Jennifer A Watt  69   70 Tahir Masud  71 Task Force on Global Guidelines for Falls in Older Adults
Collaborators, Affiliations

World guidelines for falls prevention and management for older adults: a global initiative

Manuel Montero-Odasso et al. Age Ageing. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: falls and fall-related injuries are common in older adults, have negative effects on functional independence and quality of life and are associated with increased morbidity, mortality and health related costs. Current guidelines are inconsistent, with no up-to-date, globally applicable ones present.

Objectives: to create a set of evidence- and expert consensus-based falls prevention and management recommendations applicable to older adults for use by healthcare and other professionals that consider: (i) a person-centred approach that includes the perspectives of older adults with lived experience, caregivers and other stakeholders; (ii) gaps in previous guidelines; (iii) recent developments in e-health and (iv) implementation across locations with limited access to resources such as low- and middle-income countries.

Methods: a steering committee and a worldwide multidisciplinary group of experts and stakeholders, including older adults, were assembled. Geriatrics and gerontological societies were represented. Using a modified Delphi process, recommendations from 11 topic-specific working groups (WGs), 10 ad-hoc WGs and a WG dealing with the perspectives of older adults were reviewed and refined. The final recommendations were determined by voting.

Recommendations: all older adults should be advised on falls prevention and physical activity. Opportunistic case finding for falls risk is recommended for community-dwelling older adults. Those considered at high risk should be offered a comprehensive multifactorial falls risk assessment with a view to co-design and implement personalised multidomain interventions. Other recommendations cover details of assessment and intervention components and combinations, and recommendations for specific settings and populations.

Conclusions: the core set of recommendations provided will require flexible implementation strategies that consider both local context and resources.

Keywords: aged; clinical practice; consensus; falls; global; guidelines; injury; older people; recommendations; world.

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Conflict of interest statement

The corresponding author declares on behalf of the group of authors that many of the co-authors receive funding and grants but that none pose a substantive conflict to this published work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Algorithm for risk stratification, assessments and management/interventions for community-dwelling older adults.

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