Fall Risk News

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) - Older adults who take many common medicines may be more likely to fall and be injured when they drink alcohol, a recent study suggests. Researchers focused on a wide variety of medicines that can have potentially dangerous side effects when mixed with alcohol…

Use of hearing aids delays the diagnosis of Alzheimer Disease, dementia, depression, anxiety, and injurious falls among older adults with hearing loss, according to recent study findings published online in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.  For the retrospective cohort study, lead…

Older adults with certain markers of subclinical cardiovascular disease have more than double the risk of falls, according to a study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.  “Cardiovascular disease is associated with greater fall risk; however, it is unknown if pathways that contribute…

De-intensification of antihypertensive therapies in nursing home residents may lessen their risk for recurrent falls, according to new findings. Researchers arrived at this conclusion following a study of 19,297 veterans in US Department of Veterans’ Affairs nursing homes who had hypertension that…

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) - Many older adults should avoid taking vitamin D and calcium supplements to prevent falls and fractures, and focus instead on exercises to improve balance and coordination, U.S. doctors recommend. The conclusion issued Tuesday by the U.S. Preventive Services…

By Mary Gillis (Reuters Health) - Older adults have a greater risk of falling to begin with. But this risk heightens considerably within the first six months of a hospital release, Australian researchers say. More than half of those who do fall during this period suffer serious injury, such as…

By Carolyn Crist (Reuters Health) - An increasing number of U.S. patients in their 90s are hospitalized with injuries after falling, but they may be faring slightly better than in the past, a small study suggests. Researchers looked at patients over age 90 admitted to a single trauma center after…

Researchers developed a cable-driven robot to deliver perturbations to Parkinson disease (PD) patients while walking in an effort to see if participants’ compensatory responses could be strengthened and their walking balance improved. Specifically, in the study researchers aimed to examine how PD…

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) - Older adults who exercise may be half as likely to fall as their inactive counterparts, and adding therapies like eye exams, vitamins and home repairs may lower the risk even more, a research review suggests. Researchers examined data from 238 previously…

A recent study published in the Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics explored the factors surrounding outdoor falls in older adults such as experience and practices of older adults who have fallen outdoors. “Despite their frequency, outdoor falls receive little attention when it comes to…