Fall is the second leading cause of accidental deaths worldwide and is a major cause of personal injury, especially for the elderly. Falling in older adults is an important class of preventable injuries. Builders, electricians, miners, and painters are jobs with high levels of fall injuries.
Approximately 155 million new cases of significant decline occurred in 2013. This unintentional fall resulted in 556,000 deaths rising from 341,000 deaths in 1990.
Video Falling (accident)
Cause
Accident
The most common cause of falling in a healthy adult is an accident. Can by slipping or tripping from a stable surface or ladder, improper footwear, dark environment, uneven ground, or lack of exercise. Studies show that women are more vulnerable to fall than men in all age groups.
Age
Older people and especially elderly people with dementia are at greater risk than young people who are injured by falls. Older people are at risk due to accidents, gait disturbances, impaired balance, reflex changes due to visual, sensory, motor and cognitive impairment, drugs and alcohol consumption, infections, and dehydration.
Disease
People who have had a stroke are at risk of falling due to gait disturbances, reduced muscle tone and weakness, side effects of drugs to treat MS, low blood sugar, low blood pressure, and vision loss.
People with Parkinson's disease are at risk of falling due to gait disturbances, loss of motion control including freezing and jerking, autonomic system disorders such as orthostatic hypotension, fainting, and postural orthostatic takikardia syndrome; neurologic and sensory disorders including weakness of the leg muscles, deep sensitivity disorders, epilepsy seizures, cognitive impairment, visual impairment, balance disorders, and drug side effects to treat PD.
People with multiple sclerosis are at risk of falling due to gait disturbances, drop foot, ataxia, reduced proprioception, improper or reduced use of aids, diminished vision, cognitive changes, and medications to treat MS.
Workplace
In job settings, fall incidents are usually referred to as slips, trips, and falls (STFs). Falling is an important topic for occupational safety and health services. Any surface running/working can be a potential falling hazard. The unprotected edge or edge of 6 feet (1.8 m) or more above the lower level shall be protected from being dropped by the use of rail guard systems, safety net systems, or personal fallback systems. This dangerous exposure exists in various forms, and can be as seemingly innocuous as changing a bulb from a step ladder to something high-risk like mounting a bolt on high steel at 200 feet (61 m) in the air. In 2000, 717 workers died from injuries caused by falling from stairs, scaffolding, buildings, or other altitudes. More recent data in 2011, found that STF contributed 14% of all workplace deaths in the United States that year.
Companies should ensure that they comply with applicable safety laws ( eg. , US Occupational Safety and Health Act) to keep their working environment safe.
Risk factors
The National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety has compiled several known risk factors that have been found responsible for STF in workplace settings. Although falls can occur anytime and in any way at work, these factors have been known to cause the same level of decline, which is less likely to happen than to fall to lower levels.
Workplace factors: spills on road surfaces, ice, rainfall (snow/hail), mats or loose carpets, boxes/containers, poor lighting, uneven road surfaces
Organizational factors of work: speed of work fast, work tasks involving fluid or fat
Individual factors: age; employee fatigue; failed vision/bifocal use; unsuitable, loose, or fitting footwear
Precautionary measures: warning signs
Due to accidentally falling
Fall injuries can be caused intentionally, as in the case of accidental defenestration or jumping.
Maps Falling (accident)
Height and severity
The severity of the injury increases with the falling height but also depends on the features of the body and the surface and the way the body impacts on the surface. The chances of survival increase when landing on a highly volatile surface (surfaces that are easily bent, compressed, or moved) such as snow or water.
Injuries caused by falling from buildings vary depending on the height of the building and the age of the person. Falling from the second floor/floor of the building (American English) or the first floor/floor (English English and equivalent idiom in continental European) usually causes injury but is not fatal. Overall, the height at which 50% of children die from fall is between four and five floor elevations (about 12 to 15 meters or 40 to 50 feet) above the ground.
Prevention
Rates fall in the hospital may be reduced by a number of joint interventions by 0.72 from baseline in the elderly. In nursing homes falling prevention problems involving a number of interventions prevent recurring falls.
Epidemiology
In 2013 falling unintentionally resulted in 556,000 deaths rising from 341,000 deaths in 1990. They are the second most common cause of death from accidental injury after a motor vehicle crash. They are the most common cause of injury seen in the emergency department in the United States. One study found that there were nearly 7.9 million emergency department visits involving falls, almost 35.7% of all meetings.
See also
- Safety nets
- Free to fall
References
External links
- Plunge Between Adults Older: Brochures and Posters (in English, Spanish and Chinese) US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Waterfall Among Adults Continue: Overview of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Falls Costs Among Adult Centers of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
- Hip Fracture Among Older Adult Centers US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Plunge at the US Central Homes for Disease Control and Prevention
- US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control Prevention
- Preventing Falls: What Works-A CDC Compendium Effective Community Based Interventions from around the World US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (PDF)
- Preventing Falls: How to Develop a Community Based Fall Prevention Program for Older Adults Centers Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- General Health Round: Helping Older Parents Live Better, Longer Life: Preventing Falling Brain Injury and Traumatic Centers for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Accidental Injury Division CDC - US Center for Disease Control and Prevention Podcast
Source of the article : Wikipedia