Falls in Older Adults
Globally, falls are a major public health problem. An estimated 684,000 fatal falls occur each year, making it the second leading cause of unintentional injury death, after road traffic injuries.
In the U.S., over 800,000 patients a year are hospitalized because of a fall injury, most often because of a head injury or hip fracture. This makes the financial cost of fall-related injuries also substantial. Each year about $50 billion is spent on medical costs related to non-fatal fall injuries, and $754 million is spent related to fatal falls.
What Causes a Fall?
While all people who fall are at risk of injury, older people have the highest risk of death or serious injury. This risk increases with age. For example, in the United States, 20–30% of older people who fall suffer moderate to severe injuries such as bruises, hip fractures, or head trauma. This heightened risk level for older adults is in part due to physical, sensory, and cognitive changes associated with aging, as well as environments that are not well-suited for an aging population.
Older people are more likely to have a fall because they may have:
- balance problems and muscle weakness
- visual impairments, which can alter depth perception, peripheral vision, and visual acuity
- a long-term health condition, such as heart disease, dementia, or low blood pressure, which can lead to dizziness and brief losses of consciousness
- an underlying medical condition, such as neurological, cardiac, or other disabling conditions
- side effects from a psychotropic medication, which can increase the risk of falling by 47%
Preventing a Fall
Making home safety modifications is essential to ensuring older adults can continue living independently and comfortably in their own homes. A fall is also more likely to happen if:
- floors are wet, such as in the bathroom, or have been recently polished
- dim room lighting
- rugs or carpets do not have an anti-slip backing
- the person is rushing to get to the toilet during the day or at night
- Older adults can prevent falls and continue living safely at home by making a few modifications.
With such great physical and financial costs, falls require a proactive approach––not a reactive one. Today’s fall detection programs that rely on accelerometers, which are not enough to reliably detect a fall, are expensive and come into action only after the incident already occurred. Not only is the individual likely to have already sustained an injury, but oftentimes these systems fail and can’t differentiate a bump from a fall.
More sophisticated algorithms that run on devices like the Apple Watch or Somatix Smartband use a multitude of sensors (such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, etc.) to detect and differentiate falls from other high-impact movements more accurately. These types of algorithms took years and thousands of falls to develop. New devices like the Somatix Smartband go a step further than traditional methods used today. Using patented gesture detection technology, Somatix’s AI-powered Remote Patient Monitoring platform collects, analyzes, and reports continuous patient data.
With real-time alerting, predictive clinical insights, telehealth, and integrations with 3rd party devices, Somatix’s Smartband offers an innovative proactive approach that supports older adults and reports when they are at risk of falling––before the incident has occurred.
