Despite serving as a major cause of both injuries and fatalities among older adults, falls remain difficult to prevent due to a variety of personal and societal factors, a new study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society concluded. 

A team from The Ohio State University held focus groups with 59 people across three categories: older adults living in the community, caregivers, and health care professionals who regularly work with adults aged 60 and older. 

The results revealed many personal and societal factors that stop older adults from taking a more active role in fall prevention. The focus groups noted the significant effect that stigma and pride have on people at risk for falls: Older people simply do not want to feel frail and helpless, and even those who have experienced falls can remain in denial about the risk. 

One focus group participant who fell and hit their head in the bathroom still expressed skepticism about focusing on fall prevention: “I could’ve been unconscious for hours and nobody would’ve known, and yet I didn’t do anything about it … sometimes [older adults] have a scare, but we still don’t do anything about it.” 

Other key barriers to fall prevention included: 

• Fear of being sent to a higher level of care. A health care provider told the researchers: “Anything they are suggested to change is seen as a threat. They think that their independence is going to get taken away. They think they’re going to a nursing home.” 
• A perception that falls are a normal part of aging, or that they cannot be prevented 
• Fear of losing respect from peers or colleagues 
• Provider policies that treat elders as a special class of people — like pediatric departments for children — instead of adults 
• A lack of widely available information and education on fall prevention practices 

“These findings demonstrate a variety of barriers across stakeholder types and provide valuable insights for developing strategies to effectively promote older adult participation in fall prevention activities to reduce falls and enhance healthy aging,” the authors concluded.