Important Things You Have To Know About Elderly Falls
When looking at elder people, falling injuries make up most of the injury mechanisms that appear. Close to 50% of the injuries are minor like lacerations and bruises. However, 10 percent are quite serious like intracranial injuries or fractures. Around 1% of the falls will end up being hip fractures that could lead to high risk of mortality and post-fall morbidity. The CDC showed that between the years 2006 and 2010 it was falls that were the main brain injury-related deaths cause with people older than 65.
A huge problem for doctors is that under 50% of the old patients that fall do not even mention the fact that they fell when going for the checkup. In many cases they actually decide not to go because they are ashamed. This is not something to play with.
There are different unavoidable fall factors that appear and that have to be understood by literally all people. This includes factors like:
- Being over 85 years old.
- Being a man.
- A falls history
Advancing age is not actually necessarily responsible in itself for the failing risk increase. Overall elderly health status is what is responsible and what is almost always associated with falls. Those that are over 85 and that are in tip-top health condition do not have higher fall risk than those aged 65.
Some other factors that increase fall injury rates with seniors include:
- Recent hospital discharge
- Obstructive sleep apnea
- Urinary incontinence
Prevention Versus Treatment
When looking at elderly falls, many of the unwanted injuries could have been prevented. However, because of so many different reasons this was not the case. What is vital is to understand that being an elderly citizen automatically means there are some things that change from when being young. Every single adult should prepare for aging. It is something that cannot be stopped.
When you deal with the injuries caused by the falls there are many things that would need to be done, ranging from painkillers to serious surgery. In so many cases prevention could have avoided the fall in the first place.
What should be done is to go to the doctor and talk about the current health status. A doctor could easily tell a patient when there are some health modifications that would increase the risk of falls. Fortunately, there are many different things that can be done like installing rails to stairs or walking with a cane. Even medication can help in some cases. In others you simply should stay in the home at specific times of day, like when taking medication that would cause a loss of focus.
The most important thing the elderly have to understand about falls is that they can be really serious even if the fall was a minor one. Prevention needs to be seriously put in place and whenever a problem appear, going to the doctor is important. Reporting fall injuries helps much more than just doing whatever you may think works at home.