Thursday, June 26, 2008
Senior falls result in brain injuries: study
Nearly 8,000 older adults died and another 56,000 were hospitalized in 2005 after falls resulted in traumatic brain injury, new figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate. According to a study published in the June issue of the National Safety Council's Journal of Safety Research, TBI accounted for half of all unintentional fall deaths that year.
TBIs are caused by a blow to the head, and often result in long-term cognitive, emotional or functional impairments. Such injuries can often be misdiagnosed among older patients, the study said.
The study further found that while hospitalization rates for TBI among older adults are about the same among men and women, more men die of fall-related TBI – 26.9 per 100,000 men compared with 17.8 per 100,000 women. In both genders, death and hospitalization rates increased with age.