Deadly Falls in Older Americans Are Rising. Here’s How to Prevent Them
Deadly Falls in Older Americans Are Rising. Here’s How to Prevent Them.
AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.The rate of deaths after falls is rising for people over 75, a new study shows. But falls are avoidable for most seniors. We have some tips.Doctors say a combination of exercises, both aerobic and anaerobic, 20 minutes a day, can reduce the risk of a fall.Credit...Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesJune 4, 2019As the population ages, the number of older Americans who die following a fall is rising. A study published Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA found that for people over 75, the rate of mortality from falls more than doubled from 2000 to 2016.Researchers analyzed information obtained from death certificates maintained by the federal government’s National Center for Health Statistics. In 2016, the rate of death from falls for people 75 and older was 111 per 100,000 people, they found. In 2000, that rate was 52 per 100,000 people.Elizabeth Burns, a health scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was an author of the study, said the reason for the increase was unclear. “The most likely reason is that people are living longer with conditions that in the past they might have died from,” she said. In addition, she continued, older adults are on medications that increase their risk of falling. Women are slightly more likely to fall than men, but men are slightly more likely to die as a result of a fall.[Read our stories on falls and the aging population.]“The take-home message is that falls kill,” said Dr. Lewis Lipsitz, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife, a housing, research and health care organization in the Boston area. He was not involved in the study.Although the trend is disturbing, falls needn’t be an inevitable part of aging, and they are preventable.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT