As we get older, life tends to throw more curveballs. For many seniors, one of the biggest challenges is simply staying on their feet. Falls are a serious issue, especially for older adults, leading to injuries and hospital visits. Naturally, researchers have been exploring ways to prevent these falls — focusing on two big strategies: educating people on how to prevent falls and working on the psychological aspects (like confidence and motivation) to avoid them.

A recent review looked at these two strategies to see if they really make a difference. Spoiler alert: the results aren’t exactly mind-blowing.

What They Looked At

The study rounded up 37 different trials involving over 17,000 older adults (most of them women, average age 73). They wanted to figure out if teaching people about fall prevention or working on their mindset (think cognitive behavioral therapy or motivational talks) actually reduced the number of falls or fall-related injuries.

Here’s what they found:

The Mind Games: Do Psychological Interventions Help?

Cognitive behavioral interventions — which try to change the way people think and act — didn’t seem to do much when it came to actually reducing the number of people falling. However, it did help a little in reducing people’s fear of falling. But the overall impact? Meh. People still fell.

Then there was motivational interviewing, where someone encourages you to take charge of your health. The results were super murky. The evidence was too uncertain to say if it actually helped prevent falls or made people feel any better about their fall risks.

The Knowledge Drop: Do Educational Interventions Help?

Educational programs that teach older adults about how to prevent falls didn’t fare much better. Whether it was personalized, multi-topic, or single-topic education, the results were inconsistent. The only glimmer of hope was multiple-component education (basically, covering lots of topics) — this type seemed to help reduce fear around falling. But again, it didn’t exactly stop people from hitting the ground.

The Dream Team: Combining Psychology and Education

The most promising result came when they combined the two approaches — teaching people and working on their confidence. One study showed this combo reduced the rate of falls (though it didn’t change how many people were falling). But this improvement came with a big “we’re not quite sure how much it helps” asterisk. So, while it’s a step in the right direction, it’s not a cure-all.

Bottom Line: We Need Better Solutions

The review concluded that while some strategies might slightly improve fear of falling, they don’t necessarily stop the falls from happening. Falls are complicated, and so far, we don’t have a magic solution for preventing them through education or psychology alone.

The evidence right now is low-quality, meaning we’re still not sure which interventions really work. Future research needs to get a lot more detailed, and there’s a particular lack of info on how these strategies work for seniors in low- to middle-income countries.

For now, if you’re worried about your grandma falling, education and psychological support might help her feel more confident — but they won’t guarantee she’ll stay on her feet.

Drahota A, Udell JE, Mackenzie H, Pugh MT. Psychological and educational interventions for preventing falls in older people living in the community. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2024 Oct 3;10(10):CD013480. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD013480.pub2. PMID: 39360568; PMCID: PMC11448480.