Health Literacy By: Paige Catizone

“When the Elderly Fall”

What causes a fall?

● Muscle Weakness

● Balance

● Blood pressures

● Foot problems

● Sensory problems

● Blurry Vision

● Different medicines

Percentages of fall occurrences:

Three things that happen when elderly

fall:

● Broken Bones

● Blood Clots

● Skin Tears

Broken Bones:

-Falls are the leading cause of death due to injury among the elderly 87% of all fractures in

the elderly are due to falls.

-Falls account for 25% of all hospital admissions, and 40% of all nursing home admissions

40% of those admitted do not return to independent living; 25% die within a year.

-Many falls do not result in injuries, yet a large percentage of non-injured fallers (47%)

cannot get up without assistance.

-For the elderly who fall and are unable to get up on their own, the period of time spent

immobile often affects their health outcome. Muscle cell breakdown starts to occur

within 30-60 minutes of compression due to falling. Dehydration, pressure sores,

hypothermia, and pneumonia are other complications that may result.

Blood Clots:

-Bruises result when trauma or a blow to the body damages or ruptures tiny

blood vessels under the skin. In most cases, bruises occur as a result of an

injury or a fall , or when people bump into things.

-Not only are the elderly more prone to bruising, less force is required to cause

a bruise. For example, doctor visits involving procedures often make their

mark in the form of bruises in older patients, while they may not in younger

ones.

- With greater impact, deeper bruises of the muscles or bone can happen, which

take longer to heal.

Skin Tears:

-Skin tears are not life threatening; they are however often very painful. The

care and treatment can be very expensive and often wound infection can be

diagnosed.

-The average time needed to heal a skin tear can be estimated at 10 to 21 days.

In most of the cases, patients have multiple skin tears; average: 2,5 to 2,6

skin.

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