Understanding an older person’s fall risk starts with screening
US CDC information indicates that screening, assessing and intervening on fall risk in primary care can help reduce falls among older people. Circumstances in China differ, but families and caregivers can take inspiration: treat falls as a health issue, ask about risk assessment at appointments and plan care with professionals.
Machine translation of our Chinese article, without human translation review. Suggestions concerning China remain specific to China.
Chinese fact summaries and suggestions for China (not a full translation)
Original: Outpatient Care | STEADI - Older Adult Fall Prevention | CDC · Original language: en
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Facts from the sources
Screening, assessing and intervening on fall risk among older adults in primary care can help reduce falls, improve health outcomes and lower healthcare costs. View source
The CDC STEADI initiative provides primary care providers with coordinated care and evaluation plans for implementing and evaluating clinical fall-prevention programmes. View source
The Coordinated Care Plan to Prevent Older Adult Falls provides healthcare providers, clinics and healthcare systems with a framework for implementing STEADI-based clinical fall prevention and managing older patients’ fall risk. View source
The coordinated care plan offers practical advice to clinics, including assessing readiness to address falls, assigning a fall-prevention lead, training staff and integrating prevention into existing workflows to reduce falls among community-dwelling older adults. View source
The telemedicine adaptation of STEADI provides healthcare teams with a framework for fall screening and assessment in telemedicine settings. View source
Evaluating STEADI-based fall-prevention programmes can help healthcare providers and organisations improve care for older patients, simplify implementation, demonstrate outcomes, identify improvements and prioritise future needs. View source
For older people and families
When accompanying an older person to a hospital or community clinic, ask the doctor whether fall-risk assessment is available.
If their walking becomes less steady, do not simply dismiss it as ageing. Ask a doctor to assess it.
Tell the doctor about changes such as fear of standing up or weakness in the legs.
If the doctor recommends an assessment, accompany the older person and ask what to do next.
Understanding screening results should help coordinate care, not label the older person.
See what care and community teams can do
Consider ideas from fall screening in overseas primary care, first assessing whether your organisation has the resources to carry them out.
Assign responsibility and incorporate questions about falls into existing appointment or care processes rather than creating a separate system.
Train staff to recognise fall risks and review the training regularly so screening is meaningful.
Consider initial telephone or video discussions with older people who have limited mobility, then decide whether an in-person assessment is needed.
Regularly record screening and interventions to support improvement. Choose specific indicators with local professional guidance.
What needs local assessment
This content draws on US CDC webpages updated in September 2025 and describes practices in US primary care, not current Chinese policy or operational standards. China has different healthcare, insurance and care resources. Local licensed doctors or professionals must decide on screening, assessment and intervention based on the individual. General statements do not establish individual risk; do not apply population results directly to a particular older person. The programmes and frameworks mentioned are ideas for reference only. Consult local healthcare or care organisations before implementation. Source: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The original materials are freely available on the CDC website. This site and its suggestions for China are not endorsed by the CDC, HHS or the US government. Their images and logos have not been reproduced.
Sources
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Was this article helpful?
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