{"id":1030,"date":"2013-04-16T23:29:54","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T22:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/?p=1030"},"modified":"2013-04-16T23:29:54","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T22:29:54","slug":"falls-a-complicated-problem-with-wide-reaching-impacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/2013\/04\/16\/falls-a-complicated-problem-with-wide-reaching-impacts\/","title":{"rendered":"Falls – a complicated problem with wide-reaching impacts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Falls are a significant concern for older persons, and for older persons with medical conditions in particular, and as such they feature frequently in the injury prevention literature. A number of articles addressing this considerable source of injury, examining the problem from a variety of perspectives, have caught my attention.<\/p>\n

The perceptions of older community-dwelling residents regarding falls’ vulnerability was examined in a recent Australian study. Interestingly older persons rated their own likelihood of falling as quite low, whilst the majority\u00a0rated other older persons’ likelihood of falling as higher than their own. There was a relationship with their own experience of a recent fall, such that recent-fallers rated their likelihood of falling as higher than those who had not recently fallen (read more at http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/j.1741-6612.2012.00597.x\/full<\/a>). The authors highlighted a potential stumbling block for falls intervention: the protective messages may not reach the target audience as they may find the messages personally-irrelevant.<\/p>\n

Whilst I am on the topic of falls-prevention for community-dwelling elderley persons, the controversy surrounding single vs multiple fall prevention interventions\u00a0is highlighted in a number of articles in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society<\/em>,\u00a0including http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/jgs.12095_3\/abstract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A variety of\u00a0programs are available to support older adults in managing their health conditions and to reduce their falls’ risk (eg, read more at http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/23437585<\/a>); however it is noteworthy that elderly persons may not always be able to manage their medical conditions,\u00a0and some conditions are associated with greater risk of recurrent falls. A systematic review of recurrent falls experienced by persons with Parkinson’s Disease revealed that\u00a0greater symptom severity and treatment with dopamine agonists were among the factors associated with a history of recurrent falls. The authors suggest that falls’ intervention efforts target recurrent fallers in particular\u00a0(read more at http:\/\/www.hindawi.com\/journals\/pd\/2013\/906274\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The final paper to draw my interest examined the impact of falls upon the primary caregiver of the fallen. In the majority of instances, and also speaking from personal experience,\u00a0carers are the unsung heroes in the lives and welfare of the cared-for. The Australian research which used both surveys and focus groups in a 12-month prospective study found that there was a significant increase in caregiver burden after a fall, and that\u00a0caregivers became hypervigilant in response to an increased fear of future falls. There was also no increase in the number of support services used, and\u00a0practitioners were encouraged to ensure that caregivers are well-informed regarding fall prevention strategies such as individual exercise programs and home modifications (read more at http:\/\/www.publish.csiro.au\/paper\/AH12168.htm<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Falls are a significant concern for older persons, and for older persons with medical conditions in particular, and as such they feature frequently in the injury prevention literature. A number of articles addressing this considerable source of injury, examining the problem from a variety of perspectives, have caught my attention. The perceptions of older community-dwelling […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2728,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elderly","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFalls - a complicated problem with wide-reaching impacts - Injury Prevention: Editor's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/2013\/04\/16\/falls-a-complicated-problem-with-wide-reaching-impacts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Falls - a complicated problem with wide-reaching impacts - Injury Prevention: Editor's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Falls are a significant concern for older persons, and for older persons with medical conditions in particular, and as such they feature frequently in the injury prevention literature. 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