Launch of ‘Step Safely’: strategies for preventing & managing falls over the life course

Every year, more than 684 000 people die as the result of a fall, and an estimated 172 million more are left with short- or long-term disability – a shocking statistic that represents substantial human suffering.

Globally, falls result in more years lived with disability than road traffic injury, poisoning, drowning and burns combined. Falls are a growing and under-recognized public health issue and many factors – including ageing populations, increased urbanization and sedentary lifestyles – mean that global fall-related injury rates are predicted to rise drastically in the coming decades.

Step safely: strategies for preventing and managing falls across the life-course reflects the growing evidence and awareness that many falls are preventable and that prevention efforts are effective. The report urges governments and end-users to implement these efforts with immediate effect.

The Sustainable Development Goals and their associated targets provide an international mandate to improve health and reduce health inequity, which aligns well with a key goal of the Step safely package: to focus fall-prevention efforts on high-risk groups in all countries.

Now is the time to push the prevention and management of falls higher up the research, policy and practice agenda and to reduce the burden of fall-related injury.  

Join us on Tuesday, 27 April 2021 at 11:00 CEST for the launch of Step safely to learn how we can work together to implement strategies to reduce the growing harm, suffering and loss that result from falls. 

Access the meeting here: https://who.zoom.us/j/95455561281
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