According to the Center for Disease Control, more than one-third of people 65 and older fall each year. Falls are the foremost cause of injury deaths among older adults. Almost 16,000 adults died from injuries related to unintentional falls in 2005. Almost two million older adults were treated in emergency facilities for nonfatal injuries.

Falls have many undesirable outcomes. Approximately one-fourth of those who fall suffer moderate to severe injuries which include head trauma, fractures of the spine, hip, leg, hand and other body parts. Often people who fall, even if not injured, develop a fear of falling. This can lead to diminished activities which in turn can lead to reduced mobility and physical strength. Inadvertently, this may cause the opposite desired result and actually increase the risk of falling.

Some facts pertaining to elderly individuals falling include:

Women are more likely to suffer nonfatal fall injuries while men are more likely to die from falls. Fall-related fractures among the elderly are more than twice as high for women as for men.

Individuals 75 and older who fall are much more likely to be admitted to a long-term care facility for a year or longer.

Little difference is noted in fatal fall rates between blacks and whites in the age group of 65 to 74 but these rates change after 75. After reaching that age, white men suffer the highest fatality rates from falls, followed by white women, black men and black women.

For more related information, click on this link: senior safety and keeping senior citizens safe

Gerri Tyber

Operations Manager, Barton Home Care

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Senior Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.