A systematic review of the experiences of older people with visual impairment of interventions aiming to prevent falls, with a particular focus on environmental and/or behaviour interventions.

Abstract

Objectives This review seeks to explore the experiences of older people with visual impairment who have participated in falls prevention activities, with a view to investigating how appropriate and meaningful they are. Criteria for considering studies for this review Types of participants The review will focus on the experiences of older people (i.e. aged 65 or over) having visual impairment, including (but not limited to) low visual acuity, glaucoma, poor contrast sensitivity, poor depth perception and reduced visual field. It will also include research reporting the perspectives of others such as carers, family members and health and social care providers about delivering falls prevention interventions to this group of older people. Phenomenon of interest This review will examine the experience of falls prevention activities from the perspective of older people with visual impairment, with respect to the appropriateness and meaningfulness of those activities.We suspect that environmental and/or behavioural interventions will have a particular resonance with this group of older people, but are also interested in exploring the experience of falls prevention more broadly to see if our expectations are supported by the evidence. In addition to environmental and behavioural falls prevention activities, this review will therefore also consider: - exercise interventions - pharmacological review - comprehensive geriatric assessment - review of footwear Anticipated outcomes The anticipated outcome will be a synthesis of themes and categories deriving from data generated through engagement with older service users with visual impairment, carers, family and health and social care providers. This will therefore enable comparison with the views, perspectives and experiences of older people who fall more generally, and thus determine whether recommendations to enhance uptake and adherence of falls prevention activities can be generalised to this group.