Centre for Policy on Ageing



Meeting the challenge of falls prevention at the population level — a community-based intervention with older people in Australia
Author(s)	Andrew Hahn, Eric Van Buerden, Anne Kempton
Journal title	Health Promotion International, vol 11, no 3, 1996
Pages	203-211
Keywords	Falls ; Preventative medicine ; At risk ; Injuries ; Living in the community ; Australia.
Annotation	Falls are the leading cause of injury and illness for those aged over 65. The North Coast "Stay On Your Feet" (SOYF) Programme in Australia is a 4-year multi-strategic, community-based intervention for tackling this problem among 80,000 older residents. This paper presents key results of the Programme's first 18 months, demonstrates the potential achievements of this type of intervention, and examines some barriers. Programme effect was measured by monitoring indicators of awareness, knowledge, attitudes and risk factors. The intervention was found to be significantly associated with: raised awareness both of the problem of falling and its preventability; improved knowledge of the risk factors for falling; and a higher self-rated risk of falling. As expected, there is as yet no population change in fall rate. Continued intervention is required to change behavioural risk factor profiles and the likelihood of an older person falling. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-991223015 A
Classmark	OLF: LK2: CA3: CU: K4: 7YA *
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.