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Finbarr C Martin, Next Steps for Falls and Fracture Reduction, Age and Ageing, Volume 38, Issue 6, November 2009, Pages 640–643, https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afp185
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In July the Department of Health (DH) in England published a toolkit of resources to promote more effective services to reduce the burden of falls and fractures in older people. Unfortunately, there is plenty of evidence that the present provision of falls services is suboptimal. The toolkit is part of a ‘Prevention Package’ aimed primarily at commissioners of care, in an attempt to achieve a more consistent and integrated approach to a range of prevention issues in older people [1].
Falls are a major international public health challenge because of the myriad effects on older individuals: direct physical and psychological injury; fear of falling and activity limitation; reduced social participation and quality of life; increased dependence [2–5]; and because of the economic impact on health and social care providers [6, 7]. Studies from various countries have shown that about one third of people aged above 65 years fall each year. In UK primary care populations, the rate rises with age to over 60% of nonagenarians, and is generally higher in women [8] and in socio-economically deprived populations [9]. Fragility fractures are the commonest significant injury, 300,000 annually in the UK including upwards of 70,000 hip fractures.
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