The world falls guidelines: how is implementation progressing globally?

Abstract

The World guidelines for falls prevention and management for older adults (WFG), from 2022, represent a global initiative to address the rising incidence of falls and related injury. WFG provides evidence-based recommendations across various settings, including community, hospital, and care home environments. A recent report highlighted a large variation in the implementation progress of the WFG across Europe. However, to date, a comprehensive global overview of the WFG implementation status has not been undertaken. To address this gap, we reached out to experts who took part in WFG to inquire about the implementation status of WFG in their countries. The responses from experts from 18 countries (one from Africa, six from Asia, one from Europe, three from North America, one from Oceania and six from South America) revealed that efforts to implement the WFG are underway in many of them, with differing degrees of progress varying from advanced integration into guidelines/policies to no/minimal actions. While the global implementation status of WFG is encouraging, significant barriers remain, including limited resources, competing health priorities, and cultural differences in care models. Adapting the WFG to diverse healthcare systems and integrating falls prevention into national policies and health priorities is essential to enable effective implementation. Furthermore, strengthening global collaboration, sharing best practices, prioritisation of the most effective and feasible falls prevention components in low resource settings, and advocating for falls prevention as a public health priority will help accelerate progress across the world for the benefit of older patients at risk of falling.