Falls and Fitness Most Recent
PhD
Falls contribute to ongoing mobility issues, and make it difficult for individuals that have sustained...
The high incidence of falls among older adults leads to increased health care costs and decrements in functional status.
MD, FRCPC, FACP, AGSF
The benefit of regular exercise was well established with the MacArthur Foundation’s study of healthy aging in 1998, but the difficulties in implementing its recommendations are twofold: how do we encourage our patients to exercise, and how do we prescribe the right kinds of exercise?
Vertebral compression fractures (VCF) are the hallmark of osteoporosis, yet two-thirds of all VCF remain undiagnosed and untreated.
Exercise offers significant health benefits to older people, but may also carry risks of injury and cardiovascular events.
A wrist fracture is associated with an increased risk of another fracture and should prompt investigation for osteoporosis in both men and women.
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Australian researchers who conducted a randomized controlled trial of a targeted multifactorial intervention to prevent falls among hospitalized older adults have found that the approach was not effective for those with relatively short hospital stays.
According to a report of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, falls resulting in serious injury or death are much more frequent among those age 55 and over; 70% of fatal falls occurred among persons 75 years and over.
There is mounting evidence that visual impairment is significantly associated with the increased incidence of falling in the older adult.
The Falls Prevention Program at Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences Centre was developed to provide patients with an evidence-based, multidisciplinary intervention to prevent falls.
