External validation of a predictive model for falls in podiatry practice

Falls are an increasingly significant health problem amongst older people living at home, and are associated with injuries, morbidity, mortality and high healthcare costs. To prevent falls, the timely identification and treatment of patients at increased risk of falling is essential. As there is growing evidence of a link between foot problems and falls in older adults, foot care professionals, such as podiatrists, should be involved in fall prevention.

To support podiatrists in identifying patients at risk of falling, our colleague Danique van Gulick and fellow researchers at Amsterdam UMC have recently developed a clinical prediction model (CPM) specifically for use in podiatry practice. This model has been validated internally and has demonstrated acceptable accuracy in predicting falls among older people living at home who visit a podiatrist. However, before the model can be used with confidence in clinical practice, external validation is required to assess its predictive performance in new patients.