Abstract
Background
Falls in older adults are a reasonably common occurrence and about 10% of these experience multiple falls annually. These falls may be serious and may cause significant morbidity and mortality. These can also threaten the independence of older people and may be responsible for an individual’s loss of independence and socioeconomic consequences. These falls may add extra burden to the health care and to direct and indirect costs.
Methodology
An extensive search of literature was done on the important data bases of PubMed, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar on this topic and all the useful information was derived from the relevant articles for this review.
Results
We found that the falls in older individuals are often multi factorial and hence a multidisciplinary approach is required to prevent and manage these falls. The risk factors leading to the falls could be divided into extrinsic, intrinsic and situational factors. The commonest and serious injuries are to the head and fractures, due to fragility of bones.
Discussion
The falls in elderly are on rise and taking the shape of an epidemic. Prevention of these falls is far better than the management. Safe living environment of the elderly people helps in prevention of these falls. The management of the falls should focus on the causative factors, apart from treating the injuries caused by the falls.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Nevitt, M. C., Cummings, S. R., Kidd, S., & Black, D. (1989). Risk factors for recurrent nonsyncopal falls. A prospective study. JAMA.,261(18), 2663–2668.
Rodríguez-Molinero, A., Narvaiza, L., Gálvez-Barrón, C., et al. (2015). Falls in the Spanish elderly population: Incidence, consequences and risk factors. Revista Espanola de Geriatria y Gerontologia50(6), 274–280.
Rapp, K., Freiberger, E., Todd, C., et al. (2014). Fall incidence in Germany: Results of two population-based studies, and comparison of retrospective and prospective falls data collection methods. BMC Geriatrics,14, 105.
Shumway-Cook, A., Ciol, M. A., Hoffman, J., et al. (2009). Falls in the Medicare population: Incidence, associated factors, and impact on health care. Physical Therapy,89(4), 324–332.
Tinetti, M. E., Speechley, M., & Ginter, S. F. (1988). Risk factors for falls among elderly persons living in the community. New England Journal of Medicine,319(26), 1701–1707.
Costs of Falls Among Older Adults. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Home and Recreational Safety, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Bethesda, MD. 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Preventing Falls in Hospitals: A Toolkit for Improving Quality of Care. Rockville, MD: AHRQ. January 2013. AHRQ publication no 13-0015EF. http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/hospital/fallpxtoolkit/index.html. Retrieved 23 January 23, 2017.
Baek, S., Piao, J., Jin, Y., & Lee, S. M. (2014). Validity of the Morse Fall Scale implemented in an electronic medical record system. Journal of Clinical Nursing,23(17–18), 2434–2440.
Burns, E. R., Stevens, J. A., & Lee, R. (2016). The direct costs of fatal and non-fatal falls among older adults—United States. J Safety Research,58, 99–103.
Bradley, S. M. (2011). Falls in older adults. Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine,78(4), 590–595.
Institute of Medicine (US) Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. (1992). Falls in older persons: risk factors and prevention. In R. L. Berg & J. S. Cassells (Eds.), The second fifty years: Promoting health and preventing disability. Washington: National Academies Press.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Injury prevention & control: traumatic brain injury & concussion. TBI: get the facts. Updated: September 20, 2016. http://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
Stevens, J. A., Ballesteros, M. F., Mack, K. A., Rudd, R. A., DeCaro, E., & Adler, G. (2012). Gender differences in seeking care for falls in the aged Medicare population. American Journal of Preventive Medicine,43(1), 59–62.
Joseph, B., Pandit, V., Zangbar, B., et al. (2014). Validating trauma-specific frailty index for geriatric trauma patients: A prospective analysis. Journal of the American College of Surgeons,219(1), 10–17.
Tom, S. E., Adachi, J. D., Anderson, F. A., Jr., et al. (2013). Frailty and fracture, disability, and falls: A multiple country study from the global longitudinal study of osteoporosis in women. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society,61(3), 327–334.
Carpenter, C. R., & Stern, M. E. (2010). Emergency orthogeriatrics: Concepts and therapeutic alternatives. Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America,28(4), 927–949.
Blain, H., Masud, T., Dargent-Molina, P., et al. For the EUGMS Falls and Fracture Interest Group, European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ESCEO), Osteoporosis Research and Information Group (GRIO), (2016). A comprehensive fracture prevention strategy in older adults: The European Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EUGMS) statement. The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging,20(6), 647–652.
Cenzer, I. S., Tang, V., Boscardin, W. J., et al. (2016). One-year mortality after hip fracture: Development and validation of a prognostic index. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society,64(9), 1863–1868.
Carneiro, M. B., Alves, D. P., & Mercadante, M. T. (2013). Physical therapy in the postoperative of proximal femur fracture in elderly. Literature review. Acta Ortop Bras.,21(3), 175–178.
Buecking, B., Timmesfeld, N., Riem, S., et al. (2013). Early orthogeriatric treatment of trauma in the elderly: A systematic review and metaanalysis. DtschArztebl International,110(15), 255–262.
Yasen, A. T., & Haddad, F. S. (2014). Periprosthetic fractures: Bespoke solutions. The Bone & Joint Journal,96-B(11 supple A), 48–55.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Home and recreational safety. Hip fractures among older adults. Updated: September 20, 2016. http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/falls/adulthipfx.html. Accessed 23 January 2017.
Chang, H. J. (2010). Falls and older adults. JAMA.,303(3), 288.
Roberts, K. C., & Brox, W. (2015). AAOS clinical practice guideline: Management of hip fractures in the elderly. Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons,23(2), 138–140.
Wilson, H. (2013). Multi-disciplinary care of the patient with acute hip fracture: How to optimise the care for the elderly, traumatised patient at and around the time of the fracture to ensure the best short-term outcome as a foundation for the best long-term outcome. Best Practice & Research Clinical Rheumatology,27(6), 717–730.
Vlaeyen, E., Coussement, J., Leysens, G., et al. (2015). Characteristics and effectiveness of fall prevention programs in nursing homes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society,63(2), 211–221.
O’Malley, N. T., Blauth, M., Suhm, N., & Kates, S. L. (2011). Hip fracture management, before and beyond surgery and medication: A synthesis of the evidence. Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery,131(11), 1519–1527.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.
Informed consent
For this type of study an informed consent is not required.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vaishya, R., Vaish, A. Falls in Older Adults are Serious. JOIO 54, 69–74 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43465-019-00037-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43465-019-00037-x