Zhongguo quanke yixue (Dec 2023)
Falls Prevention Intervention for Community-dwelling Older Adults from the Perspective of Policy Tools: an International Comparative Study
Abstract
Background Falls among older adults will cause a heavy burden on society and families. The development of effective falls prevention intervention policies for community-dwelling older adults is an important initiative to address this global public health problem. Objective To analyze and compare the content composition, key initiatives and implementation strategies of current falls prevention intervention policies for community-dwelling older adults in different countries from the perspective of policy tools. Methods Six countries in Asia, North America, and Europe, including Japan, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, Germany, and Russia, were selected as sample countries according to the degree of population aging and economic income level. Refer to the websites of relevant government departments such as the Ministry of Health, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and directly affiliated institutions, as well as websites of nongovernmental organizations, such as Prevention of Falls Network Europe, National Council On Aging, U.S., Association of Fall Prevention, Japan, and National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, Germany, the national policy documents of prevention interventions for community-dwelling older adults from January 2010 to June 2022 were searched by using "older adults" "fall/drop/accidental injuries" "prevention" as keywords. The text analysis was performed from the dimensions of policy tools such as demand-side type, supply-side type and environmental-side type, and injury prevention strategies such as education prevention strategies and evaluation strategies. Results Among the 24 policy documents, there were 212 coded targets in the dimension of policy tools, with environmental-side type, supply-side type and demand-side type policy tools accounting for 45.3% (96/212), 40.6% (86/212) and 14.1% (30/212), respectively. Among high-income countries, the public service tools under supply-side type policy tools were mostly applied in the United States and Germany, accounting for 40.5% (17/42) and 13.8% (8/58) ; the infrastructure construction tools under supply-side type policy tools were focused in Singapore〔24.1% (7/29) 〕. Among low and middle income countries, the environmental-side type policy tools were mostly applied in Russia and Thailand, accounting for 51.3% (20/39) and 55.6% (10/18), respectively. Public service was mostly applied among the supply-side type policy tools, accounting for 17.5% (37/212) ; technical standard was mostly applied among the environmental-side type policy tools, accounting for 10.8% (23/212) ; medicare payment was mostly applied among the demand-side type policy tools, accounting for 4.7% (10/212). In addition, there were 105 coded targets in the dimension of injury prevention strategies, with the education prevention strategies accounting for the highest proportion of 31.4% (33/105), the engineering strategy accounting for the lowest proportion of 5.7% (6/105). High-income countries are at the stage of multi-sectoral collaborative policy implementation, low and middle income countries are at the stage of policy implementation by the Ministry of Health stage. Conclusion Six countries focus on public service and infrastructure development under supply-side type policy tools; the application of demand-side type policy tools can be summarized as intervention services managed by medical insurance, intervention projects supported by financial funds, service purchases attracted by price subsidies, planning, organization, advocacy, and standard setting of environmental-side type policy tools. In combination with the priorities and specific measures of the six countries, it is suggested to learn from advanced experience in improving public services, strengthening evidence-based projects, standardizing technical standards, supporting financial incentives, expanding medical insurance programs, and providing price subsidies, thus further optimizing falls prevention intervention policies for community-dwelling older adults.
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