How can you prevent falls?

Falls are the most common reason why Canadians are admitted to hospital for injury. The 1999/2000 National Trauma Registry Report, Hospital Injury Admissions reports:

• 54 out of every 100 people who are admitted to hospital in Canada are there because they fell.
• 69 out of every 100 days people spend in hospital are due to falls.
• 76 out of every 100 people who died in hospital died due to injuries suffered from falls.
• 85 out of every 100 seniors hospitalized for trauma were there because of a fall.

According to SMARTRISK's 'The Economic Burden of Unintentional Injury In Canada ', two of the three most expensive unintentional injuries in Canada are:

• falls in children under 9 years of age
• hip fractures and falls in the elderly

Children

Tips for preventing falls in children:

• Install safety gates on stairs
• There's no substitute for direct supervision

Check out Health Canada's 'Is your Child Safe?' for specific information on child home safety.

Ensure that playground equipment is safe.

• Make sure the equipment is in working order.
• Assess the ground to see if there are any dangers or hazards.
• Teach children how to climb into and out of equipment.

Check out the playground safety tips on the Safe Kids' web site.

One important tip is:

• Wear the Gear - make sure that children 'wear the gear' such as bicycle helmets and other protective equipment appropriate to the activities that they participate in.

Seniors

Preventing falls in the elderly requires an approach that includes:

• Environmental issues - is their house or apartment safe?
• Physical issues - has the senior become frail recently or has his, or her vision gotten worse recently?
• Cognitive issues - such as the way seniors perceive or see things, their ability to remember and to recognize things
• Social factors - such as a senior living alone, or going shopping without any support
• Physical strength - as people get older, their physical strength, their ability to coordinate eye-body movements and their ability to reason, change

Tips:

• Remove clutter on the floor
• Add non-slip backing to area rugs to keep the home slip-proof
• Arrange furniture so that there are clear pathways to all areas in the home
• Install grab bars and other devices to make it easier for an adult to get out of slippery areas like the bathtub
• Label medicine clearly avoid misuse of medication.
• The risk factors for falling, such as dizziness, confusion or feeling disoriented, should be explained to the senior
• Check to make sure that the senior is taking his or her medicine properly
• Regular physical activity can help to maintain and/or increase coordination, strength, and flexibility
• Reduce the possibility of eye and vision problems by keeping regular appointments with the eye doctor

Health Canada offers useful information on Seniors and Injury Prevention. In addition, the Canada Safety Council also has information on how to change a home to make it safer for seniors.

Work place

Another common group of injuries are those that occur in the workplace.

• About 6 out of 10 falls in the workplace happen due to tripping or slipping
• About 4 out of 10 falls occur when a worker moves to a different physical height, such as going down stairs or getting off a ladder or step stool

Safe working environment information is available from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety and the Workplace Group/Topic page on the CHN web site.

Last Modified Date: August 2005