REVIEW   

Minerva Orthopedics 2022 February;73(1):97-106

DOI: 10.23736/S2784-8469.20.04094-1

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Systematic literature review of fall screening tools for community-dwelling older adults

Hadi KOOSHIAR ¹ ✉, Aleksandra ZECEVIC ¹, Shirin MODARRESI ²

¹ School of Health Studies, Faculty of Health Science, Western University, London, ON, Canada; ² School of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Science, Western University, London, ON, Canada

INTRODUCTION: This systematic literature review aimed to identify and summarize studies of the accuracy of falls screening tools in community-dwelling older adults.
EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Papers published between January 2010 and July 2018 were chosen from three electronic databases. The selected studies’ quality was assessed independently by two reviewers using Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies -2. This included 14 studies, which evaluated 16 different falls screening tools.
EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Fall rates ranged from 9.9% to 38.6%, and the duration of follow-up varied from 3 to 12 months. Only five screening tools had both sensitivity and specificity exceeding 70%. The Toulouse-St. Louis University Mini Falls Assessment and the Activities-specific balance confidence scale Hindi version tools emerged as accurate tools for prediction of falls in community-dwelling older adults.
CONCLUSIONS: Given the variability of the results, it is currently not possible to recommend a single reliable and robust falls screening tool to predict falls in community-dwelling older adults.

KEY WORDS: Accidental falls; Systematic review; Patients; Aged