The Step Safely guidelines: a catalyst to address the burden of falls in children and adolescents

Globally, falls caused an estimated 684 277 deaths in 2019 and 36·4 million disability-adjusted life-years. 1 WHOGlobal health estimates 2020: disease burden by cause, age, sex, by country and by region, 2000–2019. https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/mortality-and-global-health-estimatesDate: 2020 Date accessed: May 23, 2022 Google Scholar , 2 James SL Lucchesi LR Bisignano C et al. The global burden of falls: global, regional and national estimates of morbidity and mortality from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Inj Prev. 2020; 26: i3-i11 Crossref PubMed Scopus (94) Google Scholar Although most of these falls occur in older adults, they are also a leading cause of injury for children and adolescents (age <19 years), accounting for more than 100 children dying every day or 38 000 every year. 1 WHOGlobal health estimates 2020: disease burden by cause, age, sex, by country and by region, 2000–2019. https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/mortality-and-global-health-estimatesDate: 2020 Date accessed: May 23, 2022 Google Scholar Additionally, falls account for up to 56% of all injury-related hospital visits by children in low-resource settings and are a top ten cause of years lived with a disability for those aged 5–19 years. 1 WHOGlobal health estimates 2020: disease burden by cause, age, sex, by country and by region, 2000–2019. https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/mortality-and-global-health-estimatesDate: 2020 Date accessed: May 23, 2022 Google Scholar , 3 Hyder AA Sugerman DE Puvanachandra P et al. Global childhood unintentional injury surveillance in four cities in developing countries: a pilot study. Bull World Health Organ. 2009; 87: 345-352 Crossref PubMed Scopus (128) Google Scholar The recently published Step Safely technical package by WHO provides evidence for action at primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention levels on this important child and adolescent public health issue. 4 WHOStep Safely: strategies for preventing and managing falls across the life-course. https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstreams/1343716/retrieveDate: 2021 Date accessed: May 23, 2022 Google Scholar However, most of the evidence is from high-income countries and is not easily generalised to low-income settings where the greatest burden of childhood falls occurs.