Table 1 Definitions for data extraction

 Falls

Any measure (e.g., count, rate) of every fall within the population.

 People who have had one or more falls

Any measure of people who have fallen once or more times including count and rate. In the literature this outcome is commonly termed fallers.

 Falls requiring hospitalisation

Any measure of falls which required a hospital stay (emergency department visit alone was excluded) including count and rate.

 Fall-related fractures

Any measure of falls resulting in fracture including count and rate. Fractures which are not fall-related were excluded from this measure.

 Active

Where control groups received an intervention of lesser intensity than the intervention group e.g., single home visit compared to multiple visits or assessment only compared to multi-visit exercise intervention.

 Passive

Where the control group receives usual care which often involves some care such as routine interventions in a residential aged care home or fall-related care provided by a general practitioner.

 Unclear

Where authors of the systematic review have not clearly described the comparator group in included studies.

 Education

Patient education interventions e.g., receiving information regarding falls risk and self-directed risk reduction.

 Environmental

Home modification/equipment prescription.

 Exercise

Movement and training focused interventions.

 Medication review

Medication list review often coupled with deprescribing.

 Multifactorial

Interventions which combined fall prevention strategies e.g., exercise, education, and medication review.

 Other

Discipline specific interventions (e.g., podiatry) or medical interventions (e.g., cataract or heart surgery).

 Vitamin D

Vitamin D prescription +/− calcium interventions.

 Quality improvement

Interventions which sought to standardise healthcare processes (e.g., clinical pathways and staffing) in a health system.

Outcome significance

 No difference

Authors of meta-analyses and narrative syntheses discussed that there was no statistical difference in studies or trends observed.

 Non-significant

Authors of meta-analyses and narrative syntheses indicated that while they did not find statistically significant changes in outcomes, they observed a trend in results.

 Significant

Authors of meta-analyses found that the falls outcome changed in a way that was statistically significant (p < 0.05).