One in three older adults falls each year, yet less than half tell their health care provider. A new CDC/Medscape video commentary with CDC’s Dr. Grant Baldwin aims to help start this important conversation.
The video, part of CDC’s STEADI initiative, highlights three questions that health care providers can integrate into routine office visits with patients 65 and older:
- Have you fallen in the past year?
- Do you feel unsteady when standing or walking?
- Do you worry about falling?
Reviewing medications to ensure appropriate geriatric doses and reducing fall risk-increasing drugs.
Recommending Vitamin D supplements.
Watch the Medscape Video CDC Expert Commentary: Are You Asking Older Adult Patients the Right Questions? (free Medscape login required)
Why This Is Important
A fall among an older adult can lead to injuries that reduce mobility, limit social interactions, decrease physical fitness, lower quality of life, and increase the risk of early death. Through STEADI, CDC is working to educate patients and health care providers about how to help keep older adults safe from falls, so they can stay healthy, active, and independent longer.
Spread the Word
New CDC/Medscape Video highlights 3 questions that health care providers should ask every patient 65 and older. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/841020 #WHCoA
Learn More
- Contact Aerin LaCerte at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment for more information and resources for providing fall risk assessments for you older adult clients and patients.
- Download STEADI (Stop Elderly Accidents, Death & Injuries) Tool Kit for Health Care Providers
- Learn about other proven interventions, such as community-based programs, recommended through STEADI to prevent falls among older adults
- Check out the STEADI Algorithm for Fall Risk Assessment & Interventions
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