Assessing and managing concerns about falling in older people.

Abstract

Concerns about falling may be present in up to half of all people aged 60 years or above. For some older people, concerns about falling increase their motivation to adopt falls prevention strategies and can therefore help to reduce their risk of falls. However, for others, concerns about falling create a cycle involving loss of confidence and deconditioning, which increases their fall risk and negatively affects their quality of life. Clinical guidelines recommend assessing and managing people's concerns about falling during all fall risk assessments. Management typically consists in adopting a multidisciplinary approach to consider concerns about falling holistically and address both the physiological and psychological factors at play.