Every year, more than 1 in 4 adults age 65 and older fall, resulting in 3 million admissions to the emergency department.1 Falls are the No. 1 cause of injury and death from injury among older adults.
The encouraging news: while falls are common and costly, both to the individual and the health care system, they often can be prevented. And evidence-based community falls prevention programs can significantly reduce falls and falls risk factors as well as reduce the costs associated with falls.
Popular community-based falls prevention programs include:
- A Matter of Balance
- Otago Exercise Program
- Stepping On
- Tai Ji Quan: Moving for Better Balance
- EnhanceFitness
- CAPABLE
These programs address a wide range of falls risk factors, such as improving muscle strength and balance, removing home hazards that contribute to falls, and increasing confidence to engage in falls-reduction activities. Also, these programs reduce health care costs and have proven positive returns on investment. In the event a fall does occur, many top-rated medical alert devices offer a fall detection feature.
Download and share our infographic highlighting key statistics on fall injuries and cost savings of evidence-based falls prevention programs.
Sources
1. Facts About Falls. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Injury Prevention and Control. Found on the internet at https://www.cdc.gov/falls/facts.html
2. Carande-Kulis, V., Stevens, J., Florence, C., Beattie, B.L., Arias, I. (2015). A cost-benefit analysis of three older adult falls prevention interventions. Journal of Safety Research, 52, 65–70. Found on the internet at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25662884/
3. Report to Congress in November 2013: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Evaluation of Community-based Wellness and Prevention Programs under Section 4202 (b) of the Affordable Care Act. Found on the internet at http://innovation.cms.gov/Files/reports/CommunityWellnessRTC.pdf
4. Ackermann RT, Williams B, Nguyen HQ, Berke EM, Maciejewski ML, LoGerfo JP. Healthcare cost differences with participation in a community-based group physical activity benefit for medicare managed care health plan members. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2008 Aug;56(8):1459-65. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2008.01804.x. Found on the internet at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1551714414000330
