Insights into Falls Efficacy and Fear of Falling

There is a critical global task towards helping older adults become more resilient against falls. The world’s population is aging, and falls are a concerning issue. Falls and related injuries can burden the person, their loved ones, society, and the healthcare system. Several key recommendations have been made through a global initiative presenting guidelines for falls prevention and management for older adults. This is a positive step towards helping healthcare and other professionals work better with older adults to identify and assess their risk of falls. However, more insights will be helpful for healthcare and other professionals to help older adults be more psychologically informed that they can overcome falls threats. Ultimately, older people being empowered to prevent their falls and be able to manage one if it does occur could live better lives in their later years.

In advancing falls practices, there is a need for greater clarity on the measurement instruments used for falls efficacy and fear of falling. Interventions targeting these psychological concerns should also be better understood. Researchers and clinicians can then adopt suitable strategies to advance the work in building resiliency in older adults to overcome falls. The research topic will refer falls efficacy as the perceived ability to prevent and manage falls and fear of falling as the concerns about falling and that the individual would avoid the activity despite being able to perform.

Falls efficacy and fear of falling are key psychological factors that clinicians and researchers address when helping older adults to prevent and manage falls. While falls efficacy and fear of falling are closely related, the two constructs are distinct and should be studied separately. Given that measuring latent constructs can be challenging, it is crucial for clinicians and researchers should be explicit about the different constructs of interest and use appropriate measurement instruments to evaluate the efficacy of interventions.

Clinicians and researchers will benefit from greater insight into falls efficacy and fear of falling. This Research Topic aims to collect contributions on the latest developments surrounding these psychological factors. Articles that elucidate the roles of falls efficacy and fear of falling, investigate the psychometric properties of related measurement instruments, and present interventions targeting these psychological factors in the practice of falls prevention and management are especially encouraged. This article collection welcomes Original Research articles, (Mini)Reviews, Methods, Protocols, Perspectives, Brief research Report, General Commentary, and Opinions, that address (but are not limited to) the following aspects:

• Falls efficacy: Concept, measurement instruments, and related interventions
• Fear of falling: Concept, measurement instruments, and related interventions
• Psychometrics of related measurement instruments.

Keywords: Falls efficacy, fear of falling, Psychometric, Falls prevention, Falls management

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.