Circumstances of falls among older adult walker users in long-term care and the associated walker design deficits.
Kimberly A Nickerson, Kailey Diaz, Brittney C Muir
PMID 37796449WHAT IT FOUND
Sideways falls with two-wheeled walkers happened while turning.
Backward falls with rollators happened during transfers when brakes failed to stop rolling. Design fixes for lateral stability and easier braking are needed to prevent these injuries.
Key findings
01All sideways falls with two-wheeled walkers occurred while the user was turning the device.
02Most backward falls with rollators occurred during transferring activities, driven by uncontrolled rolling of the device.
03Users frequently failed to utilize existing brake features on rollators during weight transfers.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The sample size of falls involving two-wheeled walkers was small (7 falls), which limits the strength of conclusions about this specific device type. The study only included falls in long-term care facilities, so results may not generalize to community-dwelling older adults. Video quality issues (poor resolution, low frame rates, distant angles) may have limited the ability to identify environmental factors or precise activities at the time of falling. The study describes fall circumstances and design deficits but does not test whether design changes or training actually reduce falls.
Declared interests
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that switching all two-wheeled walker users to rollators will reduce falls. While rollators improved turning stability, this study found that backward falls during transfers were more prevalent with rollators (16% greater) due to uncontrolled rolling and brake usage issues.