Falls

Falls alone account for one-third of all unintentional home injury deaths, more than 40 percent of all nonfatal home injuries, and more than one-third of all injuries resulting in an emergency department visit. In addition, more than half of all fatal and nonfatal falls occur in the home, supporting the need to focus fall prevention efforts in the home environment.

Older adults have the highest rates of death and nonfatal injury due to falls. Fall intervention programs have been tested among populations of community-dwelling older adults, as well as older adults in nursing homes and residential care facilities, and some of these interventions have been successful in reducing falls incidence. The challenge is to disseminate these proven interventions to older adult populations, which is especially important from a preventive standpoint because this demographic group is rapidly growing. In addition, there is always a need for continued research to find new and better interventions.