Falls Fatal to More Older People, Data Show

The Associated Press

November 17, 2006

The death rate from falling has risen about 55 percent for people 65 and older in the United States since the 1990s, federal health officials said Thursday, speculating that it is because people are living longer with chronic conditions like cancer and heart disease.

“Since people are not dying as much from chronic diseases, they’re more likely to die from a fall,” said Judy Stevens, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here and the lead author of the study reported Thursday in the centers’ Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Falling is the 14th leading cause of death among those older than 65. The research gives federal data on the deaths from falls since 1996.

Like young people, sometimes older people trip on something, said Dr. Jeff Lesesne, a geriatrics specialist at Emory University. But many falls are associated with aging, he said, including vision loss, deterioration of the inner ear and other changes that affect balance and loss of strength.

Researchers looked at death certificate data from 1993 to 2003 and counted cases in which falls were listed as a cause of death.