It’s Not Inevitable If It’s Preventable: Older Adult Fall Screening and Prevention

Background:

An older adult fall occurs every second in the US, and there are 100 fall-related deaths every day. Falling once doubles the risk of falling again. Falls are common, costly, but many falls are preventable.

Program background:

Older adults may not perceive themselves to be at risk for a fall and do not know the most effective prevention strategies. Organizations that engage in injury prevention communication are positioned to educate older adults and link them to evidence-based tools via injury prevention programs and partnerships with Area Agencies on Aging. The fall risk screening tool, “The Falls Free CheckUp,” launched in September 2022, allows older adults and their caregivers to determine fall risk and produces a report for their healthcare provider.

Evaluation Methods and Results:

Focus group testing with older adults found that the Falls Free CheckUp was simple and easy to use. Older adults who used the tool were almost twice as likely to review resources on falls prevention.

Conclusions:

Results of the Falls Free CheckUp communication campaign indicate that older adults and caregivers want to know how to prevent falls. During the campaign period (9/1/22 – 10/31/22), there were more than 175,000 visits to the Falls Free CheckUp webpage, with 30,000 completions of the tool recorded.

Implications for research and/or practice:

Further research is needed on effective fall prevention communication messages for older adults and caregivers as well as what specific mediums of communication (print, radio, web, social media) have the greatest impact in changing attitudes and behaviors.