The Patient Who Falls
By M. Tinetti, C. Kumar. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 2010
976 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Falls are common health events that cause discomfort and disability for older adults and stress for caregivers. Using the case of an older man who has experienced multiple falls and a hip fracture, this article, which focuses on community-living older adults, addresses the consequences and etiology of falls; summarizes the evidence on predisposing factors and effective interventions; and discusses how to translate this evidence into patient care. Previous falls; strength, gait, and balance impairments; and medications are the strongest risk factors for falling. Effective single interventions include exercise and physical therapy, cataract surgery, and medication reduction. Evidence suggests that the most effective strategy for reducing the rate of falling in community-living older adults may be intervening on multiple risk factors. Vitamin D has the strongest clinical trial evidence of benefit for preventing fractures among older men at risk. Issues involved in incorporating these evidence-based fall prevention interventions into outpatient practice are discussed, as are the trade-offs inherent in managing older patients at risk of falling. While challenges and barriers exist, fall prevention strategies can be incorporated into clinical practice.
Subfields: Pharmacology, Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation, Psychiatry and Mental health
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bc14bac7d724a916a32371a1e99d3fd7730fd54a
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In Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation
In Psychiatry and Mental health
Citations in the corpus
- Risk factors for falls among older adults: a review of the literature. (2013, background): “A more recent systematic review found that previous falls, medications, and impairments in strength, gait and balance were the risk factors that were the most highly correlated with fall risk [17].”