Authors' objectives: The pivotal research question addresses the effectiveness of single interventions and complex programmes for the prevention of falls and fall-related injuries. The target population are the elderly (> 60 years), living in their own housing or in long term care facilities. Further research questions refer to the cost-effectiveness of fall prevention measures, and their ethical, social and legal implications.

Authors' recommendations: The assessment of clinical effectiveness of interventions for fall prevention is complicated by inherent methodological problems (esp. absence of blinding) and meaningful clinical heterogeneity of available studies. Therefore meta-analyses are not appropriate, and single study results are difficult to interpret. Both problems also impair the informative value of economic analyses. With this background it has to be stated that current recommendations regarding fall prevention in the elderly are not fully supported by scientific evidence. In particular, for the generation of new recommendations the dependency of probable effects on specific characteristics of the target populations or care settings should be taken into consideration. This also applies to the variable factors influencing the willingness of the target population to take up and pursue preventive measures. In the planning of future studies equal weight should be placed on methodological rigour (freedom from biases) and transferability of results into routine care. Economic analyses require input of German data, either in form of a "piggy back study" or in form of a modelling study that reflects the structures of the German health care system and is based on German epidemiological and cost data.

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: http://www.dimdi.de/static/en/hta/programm/projekte.htm

Year Published: 2012

URL for published report: http://portal.dimdi.de/de/hta/hta_berichte/hta255_bericht_de.pdf

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: Germany

Organisation Name: German Agency for HTA at the German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information

Contact Address: German Agency for Health Technology Assessment at the German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information, Waisenhausgasse 36-38a, D-50676 Cologne Germany

Contact Name: dahta@dimdi.de

Contact Email: dahta@dimdi.de

Copyright: <p>German Agency for Health Technology Assessment at the German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information (DAHTA@ DIMDI)</p>