September is National Fall Prevention Month in the United States. We each have lived a very different life with different experiences. The one thing that is common among us all is we all age. There are many different ways to age and one common factor with age is the risk of falling.

The CDC gathers extensive data on injuries and deaths from falls in older people, but it does not track where most falls occur or other information that complete the picture. There are other sources that help fill in these details. Here are a few statistics from a few of these other sources.

According to an article on Lively* a Cornell physician is responsible for training other medical professionals and sets the stage for her educational presentations by laying out the most common locations for falls:

• 60 percent of falls happen inside the home
• 30 percent of falls occur outside the home, within a community setting (for example, while shopping or walking on the street)
• 10 percent in a health care center such as a hospital, clinic, or nursing/ rehabilitation facility

According to AARP** a survey that identified common types of falls that produced injuries also identified the kinds of falls that were involved (totals are greater than 100 percent because people surveyed could choose more than one option to describe their fall).

• Ground level or first-floor falls (not from a height): 43 percent
• Falls on or from stairs or steps: 14 percent
• Curb or sidewalk falls: 11 percent
• Falls from a chair, bed, or furniture: 9 percent
• Fall involving the bath, shower or a toilet: 4 percent
• This survey also included a category “Other” (including unspecified types) that captured another 26% of self-reports

According to an article on the Shell Point Retirement Community website*** it states the following statistics about falls:

• When an elderly person falls, their hospital stays are almost twice longer than those of elderly patients who are admitted for any other reason
• The risk of falling increases with age and is greater for women than men
• Annually, falls are reported by one-third of all people over the age of 65
• Two-thirds of those who fall will do so again within six months
• Falls are the leading cause of death from injury among people 65 and older
• Approximately 9,500 deaths in older Americans are associated with falls each year
• More than half of all fatal falls involve people 75 and over
• Among people aged 65 to 69, one out of every 200 falls results in a hip fracture. That number increases to one out of every 10 for those aged 85 and older
• One-fourth of seniors who fracture a hip from a fall will die within six months of the injury
• The most profound effect of falling is the loss of functioning associated with independent living

This month, we will be looking at how we can prevent falls by strengthening our bodies, learning safe ways to get up off the floor, and others.

RESOURCES:

*Lively Article - https://www.lively.com/health-and-aging/elderly-falls-statistics/

**AARP Article - https://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/il/ib56_falls.pdf

***Shell Point Retirement Community website - https://www.shellpoint.org/blog/10-shocking-statistics-about-elderly-falls/