You can reduce your risk of a fall just by making simple changes to your environment. Learn how to make your home as safe as possible and talk to your doctor if you are having problems seeing, hearing, or walking as these may increase your risk of a fall.
The normal changes of aging, like poor eyesight or poor hearing, can make you more likely to fall. Illnesses and physical conditions can affect your strength and balance. Poor lighting or throw rugs in your home can make you more likely to trip or slip. Footwear that is unsafe or inappropriate for the walking surface may also cause you to lose your balance.
Each year in the US, more than 1.6 million older adults go to emergency departments for fall-related injuries. Among older adults, falls are the number one cause of fractures, hospital admissions for trauma, loss of independence and injury deaths. Making simple changes in your environment and your habits can help you avoid not just a fall, but the potential for a fractured or broken bone that might result from it.
First, be sure your home is as safe as possible. Here are some tips:
Click here for a more detailed, printable home safety checklist.
Next, get regular check-ups from your doctor, and take good care of yourself:
A study published in the West Virginia Medical Journal documented the correlation between increasing age and less desirable outcomes for West Virginia seniors after a fall. Of 6,604 patients age 65 or older enrolled in the West Virginia State Trauma Registry, 83 percent (5,498 patients) were injured in a fall. Older adults have a different pattern of injury from falls than younger patients and have a higher rate of mortality, and the rate of death from falls in the elderly is rising. Of those who survive, there is a higher rate of placement in skilled-nursing facilities than among those without falls.
Cabell Huntington Hospital’s Senior Fracture Program was developed to provide rapid and thorough care and treatment to seniors who fracture a hip, with the goal of optimizing their recovery and ability to return to daily activities at their pre-fracture functioning level.
For more information about the program, please contact Becky Edwards at 304.399.1897 or Becky.Edwards@chhi.org.