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Affiliation
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Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA. |
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Abstract
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This editorial comments on the article by Pedersen et al. and de Wit et al.
Every second, an older person in the United States falls; and every 20 minutes, one of them dies.1 Falls are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality from injury in the older population. Approximately one in four Americans older than 65 years falls each year, accounting for approximately 27,000 deaths, 2.8 million emergency department (ED) visits, 800,000 hospitalizations yearly, and 50 billion dollars in medical costs.1, 2 Fall prevention can be successfully implemented on a population basis by encouraging healthcare providers to use evidence‐based interventions.3 However, these efforts are often inadequate, and physicians need to do more to effectively use existing guidelines and tools to prevent these potentially devastating and costly events.4
Among the worst outcomes from a fall are traumatic brain injury (TBI) and intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). TBI in older patients is due to falls in 70% of cases and increases to 85% in patients older than 85 years. Mortality in older TBI patients is as high as 16%.5, 6 Moreover, TBI occurrence in older people has increased disproportionately compared to population growth.6, 7 Because an increasing number of older people are also being treated with anticoagulant medications for a variety of conditions, increased morbidity and mortality from ICH is a growing concern ...
Language: en |