Falls in older adults are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and are a major class of preventable injuries. Falling is one of the most common accidents that cause a loss in the quality of life for older adults, and is usually precipitated by a loss of balance and weakness in the legs. The cause of falling in old age is often multifactorial and may require a multidisciplinary approach both to treat any injuries sustained and to prevent future falls. Falls include dropping from a standing position or from exposed positions such as those on ladders or stepladders. The severity of injury is generally related to the height of the fall. The state of the ground surface onto which the victim falls is also important, harder surfaces causing more severe injury. Falls can be prevented by ensuring that carpets are tacked down, that objects like electric cords are not in one's path, that hearing and vision are optimized, dizziness is minimized, alcohol intake is moderated and that shoes have low heels or rubber soles. A review of clinical trial evidence by the European Food Safety Authority led to a recommendation that people over the age of 60 years should supplement the diet with vitamin D to reduce the risk of falling and bone fractures. Falls are an important aspect of geriatric medicine. Other definitions are more inclusive and do not exclude "major intrinsic events" as a fall. Falls are of concern within medical treatment facilities. Fall prevention is usually a priority in healthcare settings. A 2006 review of literature identified the need for standardization of falls taxonomy due to the variation within research. The Prevention of Falls Network Europe (ProFane) taxonomy for the definition and reporting of falls aimed at mitigating this problem. ProFane recommended that a fall be defined as "an unexpected event in which the participants come to rest on the ground, floor, or lower level." The ProFane taxonomy is currently used as a framework to appraise falls-related research studies in Cochrane Systematic Reviews.

À propos de ce résultat
Cette page est générée automatiquement et peut contenir des informations qui ne sont pas correctes, complètes, à jour ou pertinentes par rapport à votre recherche. Il en va de même pour toutes les autres pages de ce site. Veillez à vérifier les informations auprès des sources officielles de l'EPFL.
Publications associées (4)

Brain morphometry in older adults with and without dementia using extremely rapid structural scans

Tobias Kober, Tom Hilbert

T1-weighted structural MRI is widely used to measure brain morphometry (e.g., cortical thickness and subcortical volumes). Accelerated scans as fast as one minute or less are now available but it is unclear if they are adequate for quantitative morphometry ...
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE2023

Plant sterols and cholesterol metabolism are associated with five-year cognitive decline in the elderly population

Christopher Clark, Mehdi Gholam

Dysregulations in cholesterol metabolism are associated with neurodegenerative and vascular pathologies, and dementia. Diet-derived plant sterols (phytosterols) have cholesterol-lowering, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties and may interfere with ...
CELL PRESS2023

An integrative multi-omics approach reveals new central nervous system pathway alterations in Alzheimer's disease

Mojgan Masoodi, Christopher Clark

Background Multiple pathophysiological processes have been described in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Their inter-individual variations, complex interrelations, and relevance for clinical manifestation and disease progression remain poorly understood. We hypot ...
BMC2021
Afficher plus

Graph Chatbot

Chattez avec Graph Search

Posez n’importe quelle question sur les cours, conférences, exercices, recherches, actualités, etc. de l’EPFL ou essayez les exemples de questions ci-dessous.

AVERTISSEMENT : Le chatbot Graph n'est pas programmé pour fournir des réponses explicites ou catégoriques à vos questions. Il transforme plutôt vos questions en demandes API qui sont distribuées aux différents services informatiques officiellement administrés par l'EPFL. Son but est uniquement de collecter et de recommander des références pertinentes à des contenus que vous pouvez explorer pour vous aider à répondre à vos questions.