Trial Seeks to Iron Out Elderly Falls 
 

Sydney doctors are looking to start the first trial to prevent a major cause of falls in the elderly, dubbed a 'silent epidemic' among older Australians. 

Fall injuries cost Australia's health system $1 billion a year, and research shows a key culprit are the multi, bi and trifocal glasses worn by 60 percent of people over the age of 65. 

"Falls in Western society are an epidemic," says Dr Mark Haran, from Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital. 

"One in three people over 65 will fall each year, and half of them will fall multiple times." 

But while falls seem to be an inconvenience, let alone a health problem, the worst sort of fall injury - hip fractures - can prove fatal among older Australians. 

"If people suffer them about a third of them never regain mobility, and a third will die within six months," says Professor Stephen Lord, from the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute. 

Rosemary Stuart is being tested for sight and balance problems after recently falling heavily. Her glasses smashed, gashing her brow. 

"I had blood running down my face," she says. "I was a bit shaken up." 

Rosemary blames her trifocals, and research shows she's right. According to Dr Haran, people who wear those types of glasses are twice as likely to fall over since multi or bifocals blur the lower visual field. 

"If you've got a footpath, a shadow and an edge, the edge is often reported by older people as the cause of falls," Dr Lord says. 

"The footpath crack is completely out of focus [when walking], and if an older person trips on that they may not be able to recover." 

So to try and stem the problem, doctors at Royal North Shore and Prince of Wales Hospitals are running the first study to see which glasses can help eliminate this blind spot. They need 600 volunteers aged over 65 to trial different types of glasses and prevent falls. 

Volunteers must currently wear bifocal, multi or trifocal glasses, and have had a fall in the last year. 

Dr Lord says the incidence of falls is growing as the population ages, so it's important something is done about falls.  

"The problem will more than double by the year 2050, and the cost to Australia is estimated to be $1 billion dollars, and that's now."