What's your take? How essential is the multifactorial assessment: New research

Posted Le 10 février 2020

We've been working with the knowledge that a multifactorial assessment paired with tailored interventions is an effective method to prevent a fall.

There can be a lot of obstacles to overcome to first have multifactoral assessments happen, and second ensure the tailored interventions occur. 

A Cochrane Systematic Review published in 2018 looks at the question, "is a multifactorial assessment with tailored interventions more effective than a fixed combination of 2 or more interventions?"

I was wondering whether anyone else had a chance to read and process this article. How did you interpret it?

In my work, I've been having trouble getting multifactorial fall assessments implemented in the first place, let alone knowing whether the follow-up interventions happen.

Do you feel this research would support a decision to stop trying to implement a multifactorial assessment (to limited success) and focus more on the interventions?

What's your interpretation of this study's results?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

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Author's conclusions:

Multifactorial interventions may reduce the rate of falls compared with usual care or attention control. However, there may be little or no effect on other fall-related outcomes. Multiple component interventions, usually including exercise, may reduce the rate of falls and risk of falling compared with usual care or attention control.