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Getting injured after a fall could be an early warning sign of dementia in older adults.
That’s in response to a brand new study revealed in JAMA Network Open final month.
“This study quantifies a diagnostic pattern that geriatricians and primary care providers have recognized for quite some time – falls often precede a dementia diagnosis and older adults who experience a fall should undergo cognitive screening,” co-author Molly P. Jarman, PhD., deputy director of the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and assistant professor of surgical procedure at Harvard Medical School, informed Fox News Digital.
PREVENT DANGEROUS FALLS AMONG OLDER ADULTS BY TAKING KEY STEPS
The Boston researchers analyzed U.S. Medicare claims knowledge for greater than two million adults age 66 and older who had been identified with a traumatic injury that resulted in an emergency division go to or hospital admission from 2014 to 2015.
Half of the accidents had been the outcome of falls.
Getting injured after a fall could be an early warning sign of dementia in older adults, in response to a brand new study. (iStock)
The researchers additionally reviewed follow-up knowledge for no less than one 12 months after the injury, monitoring how usually the contributors had been identified with dementia.
Falls are the main trigger of injury for adults 65 years and older.
Among the sufferers who skilled a fall, 10.6% had been identified with some sort of dementia inside a 12 months.
The study additionally analyzed knowledge from older adults who skilled an injury from an occasion aside from falling, corresponding to a motorized vehicle collision.
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“Among the older adults with other types of injury, only 6.1% were subsequently diagnosed with dementia,” Jarman famous.
After accounting for variables that could probably affect the outcomes — corresponding to demographics, the severity of injury and underlying medical points — the sufferers with fall-related accidents had been 20% extra more likely to be identified with dementia in comparison with these with different sorts of injury.
Do falls trigger dementia?
Approximately one in 10 U.S. adults over the age of 65 has dementia, previous analysis reveals.
One of the principle limitations of the analysis is that it solely checked out information again in time – so it’s unclear whether or not falls are inflicting dementia or if older adults who’re in danger for dementia usually tend to expertise a fall, in response to the researchers.
Approximately one in 10 U.S. adults over the age of 65 has dementia, previous analysis reveals. (iStock)
“We believe the latter is most likely – older adults with mild cognitive impairment or undiagnosed dementia may be more likely to experience a fall due to changes in their gait and balance,” Jarman informed Fox News Digital.
“The fall then leads them to have more interaction with the health care system, which results in their dementia diagnosis.”
“When we hear chest pain, we think heart attack — and when we hear falling, we should be thinking dementia risk.”
Michael S. Okun, M.D., medical advisor to the Parkinson’s Foundation and director of the Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases on the University of Florida Health, confirmed that when older adults begin falling, this could be a possible warning symptom.
He was not half of the study.
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“When, for example, we hear chest pain, we think heart attack — and similarly, when we hear falling, we should be thinking about dementia risk,” Okun informed Fox News Digital.
“A good rule of thumb would be to initiate an examination of thinking ability as soon as possible for new onset falling.”
Shifting the paradigm
It shouldn’t be routine apply to carry out cognitive screening for older adults who expertise a fall, in response to Jarman.
“We hope that the results of our study will encourage clinicians to monitor the cognitive health of older adults who fall,” she mentioned.
Patients with fall-related accidents had been 20% extra more likely to be identified with dementia in comparison with these with different sorts of injury. (iStock)
Clinicians could begin screening throughout the preliminary hospitalization after a fall, Jarman advised, and the affected person’s major care doctor or a geriatrician could then carry out a follow-up screening.
“The notion that an elderly person needs only physical therapy after a fall is wrong,” Okun added.
“We should be teaching folks the value of examining brain function in fallers.”
4 steps to stopping falls
Falls are the main trigger of injury for adults 65 years and older, in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
An older grownup falls about each second of daily, with one in 4 reporting falling annually, the identical supply states.
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“Falls can lead to serious, even life-threatening, injuries in older adults,” Jarman cautioned.
To forestall falls, the CDC recommends finishing an inspection to ensure your house is protected. (iStock)
“Patients who fall are at a high risk of losing independence.”
Most falls happen as a result of of a mixture of danger components — and the extra danger components somebody has, the better the probability of a fall, the CDC warns.
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The company recommends 4 practices to stop falls.
1. Review your danger
First, have an trustworthy dialogue together with your well being care supplier about your private danger of falls, the CDC recommends.
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That additionally consists of reviewing all medicines if there’s any likelihood they could make you’re feeling sleepy or dizzy.
2. Keep transferring
Regular train, corresponding to Tai Chi, helps to enhance steadiness and make your legs stronger to scale back your possibilities of falling.
Experts suggest asking your physician which routine is finest for you.
3. Seek medical consideration
The CDC recommends getting your eyes and ft checked yearly and speaking to your well being supplier about correct footwear.
Regular train helps to enhance steadiness and make your legs stronger to scale back your possibilities of falling. (iStock)
Some folks could have undiagnosed imaginative and prescient issues, like glaucoma or cataracts, which might enhance the danger of falling, the identical supply famous.
4. Do a house inspection
Lastly, the company recommends finishing an inspection to ensure your house is protected.
This consists of eradicating litter, utilizing double-sided tape to maintain rugs from slipping, putting objects in cupboards that may be simply reached with no step stool, putting in seize bars subsequent to and inside tubs, and putting non-slip mats on bathe flooring.
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People also needs to think about using nightlights to assist information them to the lavatory and making certain that your entire dwelling has satisfactory lighting, the CDC suggested.
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