A Fall Prevention Program Integrated in Primary Health Care for Older People in Rural China

In resource-constrained settings, can fall prevention interventions integrated in a primary health care system reduce the risk of reported falls among older adults?This cluster randomized clinical trial involving 2610 Chinese participants demonstrated that education about fall prevention and exercises, consisting of balance and functional exercises led by rural primary health care clinicians, was associated with a lower proportion of participants who reported falling during study follow-up (29.7% intervention vs 38.3% control).These findings support use of a primary health care integrated approach to prevent falls in older people in rural China and other low- and middle-income countries.

Corresponding Authors: Maoyi Tian, PhD, School of Public Health, Harbin Medical University, 157 Baojian Rd, Harbin, China (maoyi.tian@hrbmu.edu.cn); Yongchen Wang, MD, PhD, Department of General Practice, Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, 246 Xuefu Rd, Harbin, China (yongchenwang@hrbmu.edu.cn).

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