Falls among older adults are a significant economic and social health care issue. Evidence-based fall prevention guidelines exist but are not routinely implemented. Purpose: Evaluate Kansas pharmacists’ attitudes/beliefs, current practices, and barriers/facilitators regarding implementation of fall assessment and prevention strategies in older adults. Methods: A 67-item, non-validated survey was mailed to all 2,601 registered Kansas pharmacists in 2010. Results: 97% of pharmacists believe falls are a significant public health problem and >90% believe falls are preventable. Although 89% believe they have a professional responsibility to perform medication reviews, only 33% routinely do. Conclusions: Most pharmacists believe falls are a significant preventable health problem; however, few currently implement fall prevention strategies in daily practice.

Paper presented to the 6th Annual Symposium on Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects (GRASP) held at the Hughes Metropolitan Complex, Wichita State University, April 23, 2010.Research completed at the Department of Physician Assistant, College of Health Professions