Fall Prevention:
Reduce your risk!

According to CDC reports, fall related injury direct medical costs in 2000 exceeded $179 million for fatal injuries and $19 Billion for nonfatal fall injuries. CDC maps from 1997 showed that Minnesota was a leading state for fall related deaths, narrowly preceded by Wisconsin, Montana, North / South Dakota and Minnesota and New Mexico. If the number of elderly U.S. citizens doubles as expect over the course of the next four decades, the incidence of hip fractures is expected to double.

According to the CDC unintentional fall death rates remain comparable between genders, yet nearly 80% of all hip fractures are reportedly sustained by women. (Stevens, 2000) See http://www.cdc.gov/search.do?action=search&queryText=fall+prevention&x=20&y=10

Conversely, a recently released study by the MN department of health revealed that traumatic brain injury is more common in men than in women. Most nonfatal traumatic brain injury in MN is occurring in elderly men. The number of traumatic brain injuries resulting from falls (as opposed to collisions) is unclear, but this trend may explain the puzzling equity in gender related incidence of fall related deaths. Traumatic brain injuries are costly and can easily lead to the need for long term care in survivors.

According to the “Emergency Department Treated Traumatic Brain Injury MN 1998—2003 report (recently published by the MN Dept. of Health), Mille Lac, Koochiching and Washington Counties lead the state in traumatic brain injury incidence. Blue Earth, Carlton, Carver, Chisago, Crow Wing, Dakota, Dodge, Fillmore, Goodhue, Isanti, Kanabec, Lake of the Woods, Le Sueur, Meeker, Ramsey, Olmsted, Pine, Scott, Sherburne, St Louis, Waseca, Winona, and Wright counties also reported high incidence rates. Martin, Freeborn and Clay counties report the lowest incidence rates in Minnesota.

See http://www.health.state.mn.us/injury/best/best.cfm?gcBest=fall
A recent study of Twin Cities area parish nurse eldercare stories revealed 147 interventions targeting to fall prevention in a collection of 1061 reports

Watch for publication at www.tcaging.org