The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the number of participants partaking in fall prevention-related programs and fall rates in the community.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City, Japan as part of the Japan Multi-center Aging Cohort for Care prevention study. Data from 6423 healthy community-dwelling elderly adults living in 20 districts were used to identify the districts with high fall rates. An alternate survey was conducted to collect information on fall prevention-related programs held in each district between April 2010 and March 2011. Using the Mantel-Haenszel chi-square test, we identified districts with high fall rates and compared the number of participants in each fall prevention-related program between districts with high fall rates and other districts using the Mann-Whitney U test and chi-square test.

The districts determined as “non-high fall rate” had significantly more participants in exercise and education programs than the “high fall rate” districts (p=0.02). The “non-high fall rate” districts also had more participants than the “high fall rate” districts in public group exercise, private volunteer-led group exercise, and pamphlet distribution; however, this number was not significant.

Interventions with exercise and educational aspects may be effective in preventing falls at the community level.