How to Prevent Falls in the Elderly

What Are the Causes of Falls in the Elderly?

From balance issues attributed to various geriatric conditions to inaccessible clothing and home environments, there are numerous causes of falls that should be considered to help prevent falls in the elderly. These include:

• Poor eyesight: As vision is the primary sensory input for maintaining balance, when it becomes impaired, the brain receives less information about your position relative to the world around you. This increases the risk of tripping on something or stepping onto an uneven surface.
• Poor hearing: The inner ear contains the cochlea, which controls hearing and the vestibular system, which is responsible for balance. As these systems are interconnected, damage to your cochlea can also impact your vestibular system, increasing your chance of falling.
• Poor circulation: Conditions such as diabetes and heart disease can damage your blood vessels, reducing circulation to vital organs related to balance.
• Reduced muscle mass: Conditions such as sarcopenia can weaken leg muscles while compromising your motor function. This not only makes walking more difficult but also significantly reduces your ability to correct yourself after tripping or staggering, making sarcopenia a major cause of falls in the elderly.  
• Cognitive decline: Neurological disorders such as dementia can damage regions of the brain responsible for balance, as well as weaken leg muscles. Paired with an inability to assess risks or recognise obstacles, dementia is one of the most prominent causes of falls in the elderly. 
• Poor footwear: Wearing shoes that are too tight can limit your mobility as well as cause discomfort, leading to irregular walking patterns that place stress on your joints.  
• Medicinal side effects: Certain medications can cause dizziness, drowsiness and confusion, impacting your balance or reducing your awareness of your surroundings. 
• Trip hazards: From cramped living spaces packed with furniture to worn carpets and loose rugs scattered across the floor, your home could be filled with trip hazards without you realising it. 

How to Prevent Falls in the Elderly 

While having an awareness of the causes of falls in the elderly is an essential part of your fall prevention strategy, there are many actions you and your caregivers can take to reduce your chances of falling. These include:

• • Regular eye tests: As your vision plays a vital role in keeping your balance, it is crucial that you regularly visit an optician to have your eyes tested and your prescription updated. We recommend arranging an eye test at least every two years, even if you have not noticed any changes.
  • Monitor your hearing: Due to the link between your hearing and balance systems, it is important to remain vigilant about your hearing and seek medical support should you start to have any difficulties. While some conditions, such as an excess of earwax or an ear infection, can be easily treated by your GP, more serious damage to your cochlea might require intervention from an audiologist to prevent potential falls.
  • Manage underlying conditions: Poorly controlled health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure can impact your circulatory system, resulting in dizziness and slower reaction times. Even when you are regularly taking medication, inappropriate dosages can similarly impact your coordination, so it is important to consult with your specialist doctor if you are experiencing any issues. 
  • Fall prevention exercises: While you might assume that limiting the amount you move is the best strategy to prevent falls, staying physically active will allow you to maintain the strength and balance you need to keep yourself on your feet. Shifting your weight from one leg to the other or practising balancing on one leg are excellent ways to build your balance. Meanwhile, raising your legs, extending your knees and standing from a sitting position are great examples of strength-focused fall prevention exercises.
  • Healthy diet: Staying properly nourished and hydrated with regular meals and drinks is essential to maintaining your energy levels and stopping yourself from becoming lightheaded. Foods that are rich in calcium, such as dairy products and oily fish, are particularly good at preserving your bone strength, which is not only important for preventing falls but safeguarding yourself should you have an accident. 

• Limit alcohol intake: Drinking alcohol disrupts the cerebellum, a part of the brain connected to the vestibular system. Being mindful of how much you are drinking is critical to fall prevention in the elderly, as is checking your prescriptions to determine whether alcohol reacts badly with any of your medications. 

• Wear sensible shoes: We appreciate that there is nothing glamorous about low-heeled shoes with high sides and thin soles, but this type of footwear is essential for improving your grip and lowering your centre of gravity.

• • Remove trip hazards: Decluttering your home should be an essential step in your fall prevention strategy. From ensuring there is enough space to manoeuvre around low items of furniture, such as coffee tables and magazine racks, to securing loose rugs with double-sided tape or other slip-resistant materials, thinking carefully about every item in your living space is your best bet for preventing falls.

• Assisted living devices: While you might already use a cane or walker to get around your home, integrating assisted living devices into more accident-prone parts of your living space is a proactive way to prevent falls. Whether that means installing grab bars in your shower or above your bathtub, or adding handrails on either side of your staircase, being mindful of your mobility issues is key to supporting yourself at home and maintaining your independence. 

 

What Should You Do If You Fall?

When falls do happen, the most important thing is to remain calm. Adrenaline might be pumping through your system and pain might be radiating from where you hit the floor, but trying to get up without assessing the situation could potentially make things worse. Once you have overcome the shock of the fall, call for help if someone else is in the house, or use your mobile phone to contact your loved ones or emergency services. If your mobile phone is not to hand, or whoever is in the house has not heard you, follow these steps:

• Assess your condition: Determining whether you are hurt should inform your next move. Placing strain on an injured part of your body as you attempt to get up could cause further damage, so it is important to identify any injury before doing anything else.

• Crawl to a sturdy chair: After you have identified any injuries and you are confident you can move without causing further complications, carefully roll onto your side, then get onto your hands and knees. Give yourself time to adjust to your new position, then begin to crawl towards a sturdy chair.

• Sit in the chair: Placing your hands on the seat, slide one of your feet forward until it is flat on the floor. Keeping your other leg bent for additional support, slowly rise from the floor and turn your hips such that you can sit in the chair.

• Call for help: If there is someone else at home, call out to them and wait for them to come and assist you. If you are alone, call 999 for medical assistance, or if your mobile phone is not to hand, get as comfortable as you can while you wait for a visit from your relatives or home carers. 

If your mobility has been assessed by an occupational therapist and they believe you are at risk of falling, you may be eligible for a personal alarm, otherwise known as a fall pendant. These devices, which are typically worn around your wrist or neck, either detect when a fall has taken place or have a button on them that can be pressed to signal that you have fallen. This triggers an alert on the phone of your family member or loved one, such that they can come to your aid or contact emergency services on your behalf.

 

Supporting the Elderly After a Fall

At Blossom, we provide emergency rehabilitation care to clients who are recovering from falls and other mobility-limiting incidents. In addition to assisting you with daily tasks, such as dressing and personal hygiene, our care coordinators will liaise with your multidisciplinary team (MDT) to ensure the appropriate measures are taken to prevent future falls within your home or daily life. 

For more information about our home care services, or to speak with our qualified care professionals about fall prevention strategies that you can incorporate into your home, please contact us today or find your local Blossom office via our straightforward office finder tool.