[The care in the prevention of falls in elderly people: Meta-summary of qualitative articles]

To summarize the qualitative evidence on the role of care providers in the prevention of falls of persons over 65 years of age in centres and in the community.

Meta-summary of qualitative evidence following the aggregation method.

Extensive manual search of 16 databases (CINAHL, Pubmed/Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, Cochrane Library, PeDRO, Opengrey (Reports), Cuiden, Cuidatge, Enfispo, Medes, Lilacs, Teseo, Dissertation and Thesis Global and Ibecs), in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese; no time limit.

Selection and blind critical appraisal by pairs. A first relevance and relevance screening and a second critical appraisal screening were carried out. A total of 4170 articles were located; 41 qualitative articles were critically appraised and 31 were selected.

Data regarding author, year, study design, location, participants (number, age, sex and occupation), study methods and findings were extracted.

The analysis revealed four major themes: precipitating factors, preventive models, feelings and decision-making process. It also highlights the difficult act of ethical balance, the role of the institution in prevention and the fragmentation of care, as keys to successful implementation.

The findings show the complexity of fall prevention and the need to incorporate care providers' opinions in preventive models.