Ask any senior citizen what they fear most and, next to Alzheimer's, you may hear them say "falling."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has put some statistics behind the fears:
- About one in six Americans aged 65 and older reported falling in the past three months.
- A third of those
people sustained injuries that required a doctor's visit or restricted their activity for at least a day.
- Falls
are a leading threat to the independence of elderly people and their
ability to function.
- About 16,000 elderly Americans were killed by injuries from falls in 2005, and many others were disabled.
- Falls are the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries for people 65 and older.
- The study suggests that in
2006, approximately 1.8 million people 65 and older (nearly 5 percent of everyone in that age group) sustained some type
of recent fall-related injury.
Reuters has a
story on the issue. And here are some
resources from the National Safety Council on falls and how to prevent falling injuries.
The CDC study has state-by-state breakdowns, which can help you localize the story. There is no reason to believe that seniors fall more in one state or
the other, so differences in fall rates may have more to do with
reporting methods:
Reports of falls ranged from 12.8 percent among respondents in Hawaii to 20.1 percent among those in Vermont, but
no geographic patterns were apparent. The 50 states and DC were ranked according to their age-adjusted fall
mortality rates for 2003-2004. Of the seven states at or above the 90th percentile nationally (Arizona, Minnesota, New
Mexico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin), only Vermont (first) and New Mexico (seventh) also
were among the 10 states with the greatest proportion of
reported falls; only Rhode Island (first) and Arizona
(seventh)
appeared among the 10 states with the greatest proportion of fall-related injuries. The percentage of respondents
who fell and were injured ranged from 23.7 (Nebraska) to 48.0 (Rhode Island).
While many falls result in injury there are many, many...
