How to tackle the global challenge of falls?

Worldwide, falls and accompanying injuries are increasingly common, making their prevention and management a critical global challenge. The wealth of evidence to support interventions to prevent falls has recently (2022) been distilled in the first World Falls Guideline for Prevention and Management for Older Adults. The core of falls prevention includes (i) risk assessment and stratification; (ii) general recommendations on optimising physical function and mobility for all and (iii) offering a holistic, multidomain intervention to older adults at high risk of falls, in which the older adult’s priorities, beliefs and resources are carefully considered. In recent decades, sustainable and adequately resourced falls prevention has proved challenging, although evidence suggests that suboptimal implementation of falls prevention is ineffective. Future research should focus on understanding the most successful approaches for implementation. To further optimise falls prevention, recent developments include technological innovation to identify and prevent falls, including exergaming. Further work is warranted to understand how to best incorporate the concepts of frailty and sarcopenia in falls prevention and management. This themed collection includes key articles in the field of falls prevention, covering several topics including risk factors, effective interventions, older adult’s views, implementation issues and future perspectives.