A village Doctor-Led Fall Prevention Program Reduced Falls Among Rural Older Adults with Cardiovascular Disease in China

4617
Ning Tang, Junyi Peng, Pengpeng Ye, Maoyi Tian
School of Public Health, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
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Abstract

Falls are a major cause of injury and disabilityamong older adults.
People with cardiovascular disease (CVD) areat higher risk of falling.
Rural areas in China face challenges in fallprevention due to limited resources.
Village doctors may play a key role in deliveringfeasible, low-cost interventions.

Comments

Very interesting research and great to consider how resources are affected by location. Your poster clearly demonstrates your findings. 

May I ask, why you specifically decided the inclusion criteria to be individuals with cardiovascular disease as multiple different pathologies can increase an older adult's falls risk?

Submitted by scanuemily_20992 on

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Thank you, that is a very good point. We agree that many different conditions can increase falls risk in older adults. We focused on cardiovascular disease because it is very common among rural older adults in China and is closely linked to falls through reduced physical function, dizziness or orthostatic hypotension, medication use, and activity limitation. Also, cardiovascular disease is already routinely managed by village doctors, so it provided a practical way to integrate fall prevention into existing rural primary care.

Our findings should not be interpreted as excluding other high-risk groups. In fact, one of my colleagues has conducted a related secondary analysis focusing specifically on older adults with multiple long-term conditions, which may be closer to the broader population you mentioned. That work is also being presented as a poster: Poster ID 4542, “Effects of a Fall Prevention Program on Falls Among Older Adults with Multiple Long-Term Conditions: A Secondary Analysis of the FAMILY Trial.”

Thank you very much for sharing your work and poster. 

It is very thought provoking assessing the impact of resource allocation based on location and what can be done to change this. Do you think the rural areas will be able to sustain the village led falls prevention program and how will this be promoted to other rural areas? 

Best wishes,
Emily 

Submitted by scanuemily_20992 on

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Thank you, that is a very important point. I think the program could be sustainable in rural areas because it is low-cost, mainly based on exercise and health education, and delivered by village doctors within the existing primary care system. But sustainability will still depend on continued training, local health system support, and integration with routine chronic disease management. For wider promotion, we would suggest a stepwise scale-up model, with adaptation to local resources, training for village doctors, and further evaluation of feasibility and cost-effectiveness in other rural settings.

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