Doctor intervention reduces elderly falls

NEW HAVEN, Conn., July 18 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say that falls by the elderly need not be inevitable and doctor interventions can cut falls by 11 percent.

The four-year study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, focused on interventions that encouraged clinicians to incorporate fall-risk assessment and management into their practices.

"The 11 percent difference translates into about 1,800 fewer injuries, less discomfort and disability for the elderly and about $21 million less in healthcare costs in the region where the interventions took place, compared with the usual-care region," study leader Dr. Mary Tinetti of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., said in a statement. "The data show that fall risk assessment and management can be embedded into practice."

The researchers compared the rates of serious fall injury among people age 70 and older in two regions of Connecticut.

The clinicians were encouraged to cut medications and increase physical therapy referrals among other proven fall prevention strategies. The about 3,000 clinicians, administrators and policy experts in the region also received fall prevention information in the form of brochures, seminars, posters and patient education materials. Those in the Southern Connecticut region followed the usual care practice.