Psychological and educational interventions for preventing falls in older people living in the community.

BACKGROUND

Older adults are at increased risk of both falls and fall-related injuries. Falls have multiple causes and many interventions exist to try and prevent them, including educational and psychological interventions. Educational interventions aim to increase older people's understanding of what they can do to prevent falls and psychological interventions can aim to improve confidence/motivation to engage in activities that may prevent falls. This review is an update of previous evidence to focus on educational and psychological interventions for falls prevention in community-dwelling older people.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the benefits and harms of psychological interventions (such as cognitive behavioural therapy; with or without an education component) and educational interventions for preventing falls in older people living in the community.

SEARCH METHODS

We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, four other databases, and two trials registries to June 2023. We also screened reference lists and conducted forward-citation searching.

SELECTION CRITERIA

We included randomised controlled trials of community-dwelling people aged 60 years and older exploring the effectiveness of psychological interventions (such as cognitive behavioural therapy) or educational interventions (or both) aiming to prevent falls.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

We used standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane. Our primary outcome was rate of falls. We also explored: number of people falling; people with fall-related fractures; people with falls that required medical attention; people with fall-related hospital admission; fall-related psychological outcomes (i.e. concerns about falling); health-related quality of life; and adverse events.

MAIN RESULTS

We included 37 studies (six on cognitive behavioural interventions; three on motivational interviewing; three on other psychological interventions; nine on multifactorial (personalised) education; 12 on multiple topic education; two on single topic education; one with unclear education type; and one psychological plus educational intervention). Studies randomised 17,478 participants (71% women; mean age 73 years). Most studies were at high or unclear risk of bias for one or more domains. Cognitive behavioural interventions Cognitive behavioural interventions make little to no difference to the number of fallers (risk ratio (RR) 0.92, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82 to 1.02; 4 studies, 1286 participants; low-certainty evidence), and there was a slight reduction in concerns about falling (standardised mean difference (SMD) -0.30, 95% CI -0.42 to -0.19; 3 studies, 1132 participants; low-certainty evidence). The evidence is very uncertain or missing about the effect of cognitive behavioural interventions on other outcomes. Motivational interviewing The evidence is very uncertain about the effect of motivational interviewing on rate of falls, number of fallers, and fall-related psychological outcomes. No evidence is available on the effects of motivational interviewing on people experiencing fall-related fractures, falls requiring medical attention, fall-related hospital admission, or adverse events. Other psychological interventions The evidence is very uncertain about the effect of health coaching on rate of falls, number of fallers, people sustaining a fall-related fracture, or fall-related hospital admission; the effect of other psychological interventions on these outcomes was not measured. The evidence is very uncertain about the effect of health coaching, guided imagery, and mental practice on fall-related psychological outcomes. The effect of other psychological interventions on falls needing medical attention or adverse events was not measured. Multifactorial education Multifactorial (personalised) education makes little to no difference to the rate of falls (rate ratio 0.95, 95% CI 0.77 to 1.17; 2 studies, 777 participants; low-certainty evidence). The effect of multifactorial education on people experiencing fall-related fractures was very imprecise (RR 0.66, 95% CI 0.29 to 1.48; 2 studies, 510 participants; low-certainty evidence), and the evidence is very uncertain about its effect on the number of fallers. There was no evidence for other outcomes. Multiple component education Multiple component education may improve fall-related psychological outcomes (MD -2.94, 95% CI -4.41 to -1.48; 1 study, 459 participants; low-certainty evidence). However, the evidence is very uncertain about its effect on all other outcomes. Single topic education The evidence is very uncertain about the effect of single-topic education on rate of falls, number of fallers, and people experiencing fall-related fractures. There was no evidence for other outcomes. Psychological plus educational interventions Motivational interviewing/coaching combined with multifactorial (personalised) education likely reduces the rate of falls (although the size of this effect is not clear; rate ratio 0.65, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.99; 1 study, 430 participants; moderate-certainty evidence), but makes little to no difference to the number of fallers (RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.76 to 1.13; 1 study, 430 participants; high-certainty evidence). It probably makes little to no difference to falls-related psychological outcomes (MD -0.70, 95% CI -1.81 to 0.41; 1 study, 353 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). There were no adverse events detected (1 study, 430 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). There was no evidence for psychological plus educational intervention on other outcomes.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The evidence suggests that a combined psychological and educational intervention likely reduces the rate of falls (but not fallers), without affecting adverse events. Overall, the evidence for individual psychological interventions or delivering education alone is of low or very-low certainty; future research may change our confidence and understanding of the effects. Cognitive behavioural interventions may improve concerns about falling slightly, but this may not help reduce the number of people who fall. Certain types of education (i.e. multiple component education) may also help reduce concerns about falling, but not necessarily reduce the number of falls. Future research should adhere to reporting standards for describing the interventions used and explore how these interventions may work, to better understand what could best work for whom in what situation. There is a particular dearth of evidence for low- to middle-income countries.