New Horizons in Addressing Fear of Falling among Elderly: A Narrative Review
Abstract
Aim: The elderly segment of the population is increasing in most of the countries across the world. Fear of falling is experienced by a sizeable percentage of the elderly. Hence the authors, reviewed the current literature on fear of falling, evaluation and management of it.
Methods: Extensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, Science Direct, Ovid databases with keywords, Fear of Falling, Fall Fear, Fall Efficacy, Elderly, Senior, Older, and Elders in various combinations. The search was restricted to articles published between 2016 to 2021 in English language.
Results Out of 478 articles retrieved only 46 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the current review. The abstracts were reviewed initially and the full text of the studies which met the inclusion criteria were used for the preparation of the review.
Conclusions: Fear of falling is reported up to 65% among non-fallers and 92% fallers among elderly. Fear of falling arises due to various bio-psycho-social factors. Tools measuring fear of falling are classified into those measuring fear of falling and those measuring fall efficacy. The 2 main management strategies are physical interventions and psychological interventions. Combination of physical and psychological interventions are more effective in fear of falling management.
Limitations: Only articles published in English were considered.
Keywords
Authors
How to Cite
Download Citation
License
Copyright © 2024 The Author(s)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License By-NC-ND 4.0 that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access ).
Similar Articles
- Lamech Emoru, Enos Mirembe Masereka, Richard Kabanda, Lived Experiences of Women with Disabilities in Accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in Lira District, Northern Uganda , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 33 No. 2: (Summer) - 2022
- Maria Luisa Toro, Yasmin Garcia, Alejandra Manoela Ojeda, David J Dausey, Jon Pearlman, Quantitative Exploratory Evaluation of the Frequency, Causes and Consequences of Rehabilitation Wheelchair Breakdowns delivered at a Paediatric Clinic in Mexico , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 23 No. 3 (2012): Autumn
- Joerg Weber, Sarah Polack, Sally Hartley, An Online Survey on Identification of Evaluation Capacity, Needs and Current Practice of Programme Evaluation in Community-based Rehabilitation , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 27 No. 2 (2016): Summer 2016
- Adriana Angarita-Fonseca, Stacey Lovo, Isabel Cristina Gomez-Diaz, Julia Bidonde, Martha Liliana Hijuelos-Cardenas, Maria Basualdo, Kalyani Premkumar, Melvin Urbina-Nuñez, Angela Busch, International Continuing Education for Rehabilitation Workers in Honduras: a Pre-test Post-test Evaluation , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 32 No. 4: Winter 2021
- Lynn Cockburn, Louis Mbibeh, Jacques Chirac Awa, The GRID Network: A Community of Practice for Disability Inclusive Development , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 30 No. 2 (2019): Summer 2019
- Ambria Crusan, Jennifer Biggs, Kristen Maisano, Michelle Palmborg, Georgianne Kinsman, Keira DiSpirito, Kari Hartwig, Developing an Assessment Tool for Post-Surgical Paediatric Rehabilitative Care in Tanzania: an Interprofessional Approach , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 33 No. 2: (Summer) - 2022
- Fleur Heleen Boot, Ritu Ghosh, John Gerard Dinsmore, Malcolm MacLachLan, Views and Experiences of People with Intellectual Disabilities to Improve Access to Assistive Technology: Perspectives from India , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 31 No. 4 (2020): Winter
- D M Mijnarends, D Pham, K Swaans, W H van Brakel, E P Wright, Sustainability Criteria for CBR Programmes – Two Case Studies of Provincial Programmes in Vietnam , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 22 No. 2 (2011): Autumn
- Jerome Dany Praveen Raj, Sebestina Anita Dsouza, Amith Sitaram, Shashikiran Umakanth, Effectiveness of Caregiver Education for Prevention of Shoulder Pain in Acute Stroke Survivors: A Randomised Controlled Trial , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 32 No. 1 (2021): Spring
- Steven Berdenis van Berlekom, Guest Editorial - DCID: A New Era , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 31 No. 1 (2020): Spring 2020
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Binoy Mathew K V, Mary Elizabeth Tidiya Walarine, Technology-Assisted Early Disability Identification and Monitoring in Children: A Model for Middle- and Low Income Countries , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 34 No. 3 (2023): Autumn Issue 2023