Inpatient falls and fall-related injuries continue to be the largest category of reported incidents in the acute care setting. Falls occur in many settings: In one week, my colleague received four calls about falls: a young brain injured woman who fell off a treadmill at home while under the care of an aide, an elderly woman who fell getting off an examining table in a doctor’s office, a woman who fell in the hospital just before the nurse reached her side, and a man who fell walking out an adult …

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As fall prevention programming becomes embedded in more community sites, as well as health care settings, it is useful to find a statistical analysis of the evidence regarding the most effective types of exercise programming.  A meta-analysis was conducted to establish the effect of exercise on falls rates and to determine the particular features of effective fall prevention exercise programs.  After identifying 1,107 relevant studies, the authors applied strict inclusion standards resulting in a final sample of 44 randomized clinical trials where it was possible to discern the …

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Traditionally vitamin D has been recommended with respect to preventing osteoporosis, reasoning that improving the absorption of calcium improves bone strength making them less likely to fracture, should there be a fall.  Thereafter it was discovered that vitamin D has direct effects on muscle strength.  Severe vitamin D deficiency (as one might see in those nursing home residents who do not eat well and are virtually never in the sun) can present as muscle weakness and pain which resolves with vitamin D supplementation.  
Several early trials examining …

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I had a workers compensation case not long ago in which an older lady (Ms. “S”) fell at her job as a waitress and suffered a tibial plateau fracture.  The fracture healed, but she required a very lengthy healing period primarily because she was fearful of falling again.  Ms. “S” continued to use a walker long after she was told to discontinue this.  She even took it upon herself to move to a cane before discontinuing the walker as directed.  Returning her to the work environment …