Millions Of Older Adults Get Hurt Falling

CDC Survey Finds 5.8M Older Adults Reported Falls In 3 Months; 1.8M Hurt Themselves

(CBS)  When Shirley Keegan started falling, life as she knew it took a tumble, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports.

"Its very frightening," she said. "You don't know you are gonna fall, very unexpected and as you are going down you are saying 'oh no,' you know, and in your mind your saying 'oh no.'"

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released today found that over a three-month period, 1.8 million adults hurt themselves from falling.

"It included a whole range of things so it could be a bruise all the way up to a head or hip fracture," said Judy Stevens, the author of the CDC study.

Up to 25 percent of patients who fracture a hip die within a year. Up to 75 percent never get back to normal.

"Falls can have very serious consequences," Stevens said. "They can definitively impact a senior's quality of life and interfere with their ability to live independently."

Along with today's report, the CDC is launching a new initiative with specific steps to help prevent falls.

Read on for more information.

More Information

The CDC study also showed an estimated 5.8 million adults over age 65 reported they fell at least once in the previous three months. Check out the CDC's new resource page, Preventing Falls Among Older Adults. It includes fact sheets and helpful brochures.

To read the CDC's release on the study, click here.

To learn more about what the CDC′s does to educate about and prevent older adult falls click here and see 2006 data here.

Learn more about how the data was collected here.

You can learn more about hip fractures in older adults by clicking here.

If you'd like to find out how to develop community-based fall-prevention programs, check out this guide.

[michellem99-2009]

I am older. The fear of falling can be a matter of life or daeth. We age and a broken hip can kill. They happen in the home. Ye young ones will grow old.

[drivelphobe]

Unbelievable! Community-based "Fall Prevention" programs?

Aging results in frailty, instability, weakness, and general deterioration. Falling is a normal consequence of aging. Why not have aging prevention clinics? That''s just about as stupid.

Many older people can''t help themselves. They are just too old to get around. Millions of them are drunks, so their falling is of no concern except that it burdens our healthcare system for no good reason.

Plenty of old people maintain a healthy lifestyle, and are firm, agile, and fully physically capable of walking, running and jumping. Even these people can''t fight the clock and will eventually fall if they don''t die first.

This article is ridiculous.