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Introduction With rapid ageing of the population, falls have become a significant public health issue in China. Although falls prevention activities have been mandated in the National Essential Public Health Service Package since 2009, recommendations remain only as general advice and are not evidence-based. This thesis aims to generate an evidence base to support the integration of falls prevention programs for older people into the National Essential Public Health Service Package within the Chinese primary health care system. Methods This thesis contains five interrelated studies: an epidemiological study to understand the burden of falls among older people at the national and subnational level in mainland China from 1990 to 2019 using data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019; a scoping review to characterise existing evidence for fall-prevention interventions in community-dwelling older people in mainland China from 1990 to 2022; a policy review to document national healthy ageing-related policies from a health system perspective in mainland China from 2016 to 2020; a qualitative study to identify the perceptions of facilitators and barriers to implementation of falls prevention programs in primary health care settings in China; and a participatory design study to develop an implementation framework to support the integration of evidence-based falls prevention programs for older people into the National Essential Public Health Service Package. Results In mainland China, the incidence rate of falls in older adults increased substantially over the last three decades. Very few high-quality studies were identified to provide evidence on the effectiveness of existing interventions in China. The national policies on healthy ageing, including falls prevention, were fragmented and inadequate. At the primary health care level, major barriers, including the lack of confidence in delivering interventions, fragmentation in service delivery and limited multi-sectoral collaboration, posed challenges to the implementation of falls prevention in the National Essential Public Health Service Package. An implementation framework consisting of data, workforce, organisation, service and policy themes was jointly developed to support the integration of falls prevention into the National Essential Public Health Service Package. Conclusions In mainland China, falls remain as an ongoing health burden for older people. The challenges to preventing falls for older people primarily arise from low-quality evidence for intervention effectiveness, fragmented policy support and multiple barriers to implementation at the primary health care level. Establishing data-driven surveillance, generating high-quality evidence for the effectiveness of interventions, and creating a supportive environment are three key strategies to address these challenges and have the potential to integrate falls prevention into the National Essential Public Health Service Package within the Chinese primary health care system.

China provides National Essential Public Health Services (NEPHS) free of charge to all citizens to ensure access to essential health services. The present study aimed to explore the associations between different sources of support and NEPHS service utilization among older migrants in China with a gender perspective. We used a national cross-sectional dataset derived from the 2015 China Migrants Dynamic Survey. Participants were included if they were aged ≥60 years and without household registration at the residence. Among 1989 participants, 35.2% enrolled in a free physical examination in the past year: 34.6% for males and 35.9% for females. Among male participants, having more local friends (OR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.99) and having insurance at the residence (OR = 1.75, 95% CI: 1.03, 2.96) were associated with enrolment in a free physical examination after controlling for age, education, and self-reported health status. Two additional factors, marital status and family structure, were found for female participants to be associated with enrolment in a free physical examination. NEPHS service utilization was far from satisfactory among older migrants in China, and both family support and social support played a role in it. There are common and unique factors associated with NEPHS service utilization in terms of gender.