{"id":7847,"date":"2026-10-05T21:39:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T21:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visiting-angels.co.uk\/cheshire-east\/?p=7847"},"modified":"2026-10-05T21:50:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T21:50:38","slug":"what-prevents-falls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visiting-angels.co.uk\/cheshire-east\/what-prevents-falls\/","title":{"rendered":"What actually prevents falls?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Quick summary<\/b><\/h3>

Four things have real evidence behind them: strength and balance exercise, a medication review, an eyesight test, and fixing the hazards in the house. Exercise is the strongest, reducing the rate of falls by around 23 per cent. Almost everything else is secondary, and fall alarms are not prevention at all.<\/span><\/p>

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Why this matters<\/b><\/h3>

Around a third of people aged 65 and over, and around half of people aged 80 and over, fall at least once a year. Government guidance is clear that falls and fractures in older people are often preventable (<\/span>Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, 2022<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>

“Often preventable” is the part worth sitting with. Falls are not an inevitable feature of getting older, and the four things below are where the evidence actually is.<\/span><\/p>

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1. Strength and balance exercise<\/b><\/h3>

The single most effective thing, and the one people do least.<\/span><\/p>

A Cochrane review of 108 randomised trials involving 23,407 people found that exercise reduces the rate of falls by around <\/span>23 per cent<\/b> and the number of people who fall at all by around 15 per cent. The average participant was 76 (<\/span>Cochrane, 2019<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>

The detail matters. <\/span>Balance and functional training drove the effect. Walking on its own did not.<\/b> Programmes combining balance work with resistance exercise probably reduced falls further.<\/span><\/p>

NICE says a falls prevention exercise programme should be progressive, tailored to the person, focused on balance, coordination, strength and power, and reviewed as it goes (<\/span>NICE NG249, April 2025<\/span><\/a>). The NHS recommends older adults do some activity every day, build to 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, and include strength, balance and flexibility work at least twice a week (<\/span>NHS<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>

Free locally:<\/b> Stand Strong, a 26-week strength and balance programme run by One You Cheshire East on 0300 123 5026, for residents aged 65 and over who have had two or more falls, have fallen in the past year, or have difficulty walking or with balance. For Buxton and Whaley Bridge, Live Stronger for Longer through Age UK Derby and Derbyshire on 01773 766922. For Leek, Biddulph and Kidsgrove, Steady On Your Feet Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.<\/span><\/p>

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2. A medication review<\/b><\/h3>

The quickest win on the list, and it takes one appointment.<\/span><\/p>

Taking four or more medicines is associated with an 18 per cent increase in fall rates in people over 60, and medicines acting on the brain, including sleeping tablets, anxiety medicines and antidepressants, add further risk (<\/span>Izza and colleagues, European Geriatric Medicine, 2020<\/span><\/a>). NICE lists polypharmacy and psychotropic and antiarrhythmic medicines among the factors that raise falls risk, and recommends a medication review as part of falls management.<\/span><\/p>

It does not happen automatically. A study presented to the British Geriatrics Society found that three months after a hospital discharge following a fall, older people were on <\/span>more<\/span><\/i> falls-related medicines than on admission, not fewer.<\/span><\/p>

Take every box, including anything bought over the counter, to the GP or pharmacist and ask which could be contributing. Nobody should stop a medicine on the basis of an article.<\/span><\/p>

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3. Eyesight<\/b><\/h3>

Vision problems including cataracts sit on NICE’s list of modifiable risk factors, and cataract surgery is named in the guidance as an intervention that can change someone’s risk.<\/span><\/p>

Two specific traps. New varifocals blur the ground through the lower part of the lens, exactly where you need sharpness on a staircase, and it takes time to adapt. And contrast matters more than sharpness: a cream stair carpet against a cream wall is a hazard for someone who passed their eye test.<\/span><\/p>

NHS sight tests are free for anyone aged 60 and over.<\/span><\/p>

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4. The house<\/b><\/h3>

Worth doing, and worth doing properly rather than as a tidy-up.<\/span><\/p>

NICE recommends a home hazard assessment using a validated tool, ideally carried out by an occupational therapist. That is an assessment of how someone actually moves around their own home, not a walk round pulling up rugs.<\/span><\/p>

The common ones: loose rugs and trailing wires, poor lighting on stairs and landings, no second stair rail, a bath being used when a shower would be safer, things stored too high or too low, and slippers without backs. RoSPA reports that falls on stairs and steps kill more than 1,000 people a year in England and Wales, with around 43,000 more admitted to hospital.<\/span><\/p>

Occupational therapy is arranged through adult social care: Cheshire East Council on 0300 123 5010, Call Derbyshire on 01629 533190, Staffordshire Cares on 0300 111 8010. Grants for bigger adaptations come from the district or borough council, which in the border towns is a different organisation, as our <\/span>guide to which council to ring<\/span><\/a> explains.<\/span><\/p>

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The things that matter but sit underneath<\/b><\/h3>

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