Fall risk prediction in older adults at the emergency department: where the guidelines do not fit

Key Points

• The aim is to evaluate a new fall-risk screening tool for its ability to predict falls in older adults in the emergency department.
• Evaluated a fall-risk screening tool based on the WFG algorithm
• Conducted the analysis in an emergency department cohort
• Assessed predictive capacity for falls occurring within 6 months after an index fall
• The screening tool demonstrated poor discriminatory capacity
• Limited ability to predict new falls in the cohort
• Implications highlight potential inadequacies in current guidelines