A fall is an event where the body, or part of the body, comes to rest on the ground unintentionally. This means that a fall can refer to any time someone slips, trips, slides off a chair, and lands on the ground. Falls can occur in many circumstances - due to illness, weakness in the legs, loss of balance, loss of blood pressure, a blow to the head causing unconsciousness, and ingestion of alcohol or narcotics. Falls can be minor and result in superifical injuries, or they can be fatal. A fall onto grass can be inconsequential for a child or someone immediately post-adolescence, while a fall onto the same surface can result in a lethal fracture for someone of significantly older age, and this risk is amplified by the presence of comorbidities.
Falls are significant medical events for the elderly. Globally, approximately 26.5% of adults aged ≥60 experience at least one fall each year (Salari et al., 2022), and this prevalence increases with advancing age. A child can fall down on flat ground and recover relatively quickly save for the shock. This is complicated by factors such as the velocity of the fall, the impact, ground strike angle and the inciting factor, but by and large a child or a young adult will be able to recover. A fall for an elderly person can cause internal bleeding, facture of long bones, bone bruising or other injuries that take longer to recover and have a greater effect on overall wellness due to age. Hip fractures alone account for over 300,000 hospitalisations annually in older adults (Yosef et al., 2024), and the consequences extend far beyond the initial injury, whereu p to 30% of older adults who sustain a hip fracture die within one year (Wabe et al., 2022). Falls that result in fractures require hospitalisation and immediate treatment, which may be complicated by the presence of comorbidities like arthritis, osteoporosis or other bone-changing and bone-wasting diseases.
Falls have many causative factors. As the human body ages, its ability to respond to the challenges imposed by the external environment as well as those experienced as a result of ageing is diminished. External challenges include difficulties in loading, managing burdens, navigating terrain and the immediate physical environment, and moving between different physical postures. Challenges experienced as a result of ageing include decreased flexibility, decreased strength, decreased ability to respond to unsteadiness and changes in balance, and decreased endurance of the muscular and cardiovascular systems. Declines in lower‑limb strength are strongly associated with increased fall risk, with older adults in the lowest strength quartile experiencing nearly double the risk of falling (Stevens et al., 2016). A fall occurs when the human body's ability to respond to these challenges, both internal and external, is insufficient, and an event occurs as a result of internal and external imposed physical obligations whose results are adverse.
Managing falls and falls risk involves improving the human body's ability to overcome internal deficits and managing the risk and obligation imposed by external circumstances. For this reason, falls risk management in the elderly and those prone to falls requires a comprehensive approach that involves consideration of the environment, the person, their lives and their physical obligations. There is no simple response to the risk of falls, and there is no easy or quick solution. Every death resulting from a fall is preventable to an extent, and every factor is worthy of consideration. Multifactorial interventions—including exercise, home modification, medication review, and vision correction—can reduce fall rates by up to 24% (Sherrington et al., 2019). This reinforces a key principle: fall prevention succeeds when it addresses the whole person, not just the event.
Managing discomfort starts with understanding the cause. That includes how your pain feels and changes during the day, what improves or worsens it, and how long you’ve been experiencing it. Your first assessment will cover all of these details, giving us the foundation to create a plan that reduces pain, restores comfortable movement, and lowers the chance of flare-ups in the future.
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REFERENCES
Salari, N., Darvishi, N., Ahmadipanah, M., Shohaimi, S., & Mohammadi, M. (2022). Global prevalence of falls in older adults: A systematic review and meta‑analysis. Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research, 17, 334.
Sherrington, C., Fairhall, N., Wallbank, G., Tiedemann, A., Michaleff, Z. A., Howard, K., Clemson, L., Hopewell, S., & Lamb, S. E. (2019). Exercise for preventing falls in older people living in the community. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 1, CD012424.
Stevens, J. A., Mahoney, J. E., & Ehrenreich, H. (2016). Circumstances and outcomes of falls among high‑risk community‑dwelling older adults. Injury Epidemiology, 3, 5.
Wabe, N., Seaman, K. L., Nguyen, A. D., Siette, J., Raban, M. Z., Hibbert, P., Close, J. C. T., Lord, S. R., & Westbrook, J. I. (2022). Epidemiology of falls in 25 Australian residential aged care facilities: a retrospective longitudinal cohort study using routinely collected data. International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, 34(3).
Yosef, T., Pasco, J. A., Tembo, M. C., Williams, L. J., & Holloway‑Kew, K. L. (2024). Falls and fall‑related injuries: Prevalence, characteristics, and treatment among participants of the Geelong Osteoporosis Study. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1454117.