Similarity of Repeated Falls in Older Long-Term Care Residents: Do the Circumstances of Past Falls Predict Those of Future Falls?

More than 30% of older adults in the community and 60% in long-term care (LTC) will fall at least once per year, and many will fall repeatedly.1 For the physician treating a patient who presents with falls, a primary goal is to develop a management strategy for preventing future falls by targeting underlying physiological, behavioral, and environmental risk factors. A seemingly essential component herein is a careful history of how past falls occurred, including the cause of imbalance and activity at time of the fall (eg, tripping while walking).

Source: Journal of the American Medical Directors Association - December 11, 2018 Category: Health Management Authors: Kimberley S. van Schooten, Yijian Yang, Lukas Grajauskas, Stephen N. Robinovitch Tags: Research Letter Source Type: research