Since january 1st of this year, people over 65 years old had a fall in Europe, sometimes with serious consequences.
Since january 1st of this year, people over 65 years old had a fall in Europe, sometimes with serious consequences.
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1- In 2002, there were more than 400,000 falls in France among people over 65, which is 3.5 times more than road accidents for the entire population!
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Each year, the health monitoring institute does an estimate of the number of daily life accidents based on a report performed in various French hospitals.
For 2002, its estimate is of 550,000 daily life accidents for the nearly 9,650,000 people over 65 living in France. The older people are, the higher the percentage of falls is for daily life accidents. Among people over 65, this percentage is around 75%, which gives an estimate of 412,500 falls. Over the same year, road safety services counted 120,000 accidental bodily injuries in France.
http://www.invs.sante.fr/publications/2005/accidents_vie_courante/accidents_vie_courante.pdf
2- Falls are frequent: as people get older, their risk of falling increases: thirty percent of people over 65 fall at least once a year; this number goes up to 50% for people over 80.
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The figures we may have on falls are of course obtained through surveys. They are probably underestimated, for elderly people can sometimes forget their fall. In 1988, Cummings et Coll. showed that this represented 13 to 32% of cases.
The frequency of falls increases with age: each year, 35% of seniors aged between 65 and 79, 45% of people from 80 to 89 years old and 55% of people over 90, have a fall. The age-fall relation, although established, is not linear, however; Campbell proved so in a study carried out in 1993 in Australia.
3- According to the environment, the frequency of falls varies:
Most of the time, falls occur outside. A majority of falls take place at home or in its near surroundings. In general, they are not associated with any specific activity (gardening, manual work, shopping, sports and leisure activities, etc.). When falls occur inside, the location of the fall, here gain, is not specific, but they most often take place in the bedroom, bathroom or lavatories.
The number of falls is even greater in healthcare facilities: it is higher then 60% according to a study made by Fleming in 1993.
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General population 12.1 to 49%
Home 8.5 to > 50%
Nursing home 14 to >60%
Aftercare 12.5 to 34%
Hospital 11.7 to 46.8%td>
4- Falls are expensive! An estimate of the medical cost of these falls, in France, is of 1 billion 34 million euro.
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For the year 1993, Stephan et Coll. Published this estimate in 'L'année gérontologique' (The year in gerontology), not taking into consideration the indirect cost of these falls represented by home support and people placed in institutions. In comparison, the health budget for the same year was around 96 billion euro.5- Women fall more often than men! This prevalence among women is highly marked, for the ratio is of 2 falls by women for 1 by men.
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Epidemiological studies have also shown that the consequences of falls and the mortality rate were more important among women than men.However, studies show that this prevalence among women decreases with age and as people get more dependent upon others.6- A fall can have serious consequences and sometimes result in death.
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In France, in 1999, on the 10,520 deaths by accidental fall recorded by CépiDc INSERM, 89% (9,363) occurred among people over 65. These deaths were among women in more than 2 out of 3 cases.
http://www.cepidc.vesinet.inserm.fr
For more information regarding the consequences of falls: the consequences of falls
