While seniors have the highest risk of suffering a serious or fatal injury from falling, they’re far from the only at-risk age group.
According to research published at the National Institute of Mental Health by Timsina and others, falls are actually the leading cause of injury for all age groups.
And, they also note that the causes of falls in each group have not been studied nearly enough.
While we can’t give you complete information because it simply isn’t available, we can give you some of the most common reasons for falls based on age group:
1. Senior Citizens
Because we all know from anecdotal evidence that senior citizens have a high risk of falling, there’s more information available for this age group.
It’s important to understand that while falling seems to happen frequently for senior citizens, it’s not a normal part of aging. Most falls have preventable causes.
Seniors frequently fall because of:
2. Adults 45-64
This age group is just a rough estimate. But, basically, we’re talking about people in their middle age here.
Adults in this age range frequently fall while doing a very basic activity – walking, according to NIMH data. Another common cause of falling is engagement in sports and exercise.
Interestingly, men fall much more frequently than women. 60% of men fell during sports and exercise, compared to just 36% of women.
Other common reasons for falling in this age group include:
3. Adults 20-44
Though young and with the most opportunity to be physically active, young adults frequently fall too.
Most falls among young people occur while walking, according to a Purdue University study. In fact, 58% of falls they examined happened for just that reason.
The leading cause of falling among young adults is a slip or trip.
Usually, the study asserts, this happens because of age-related changes in balance.
Further, the fall rate increases as the activity rate increases.
And if you’re wondering how many falls happened as a result of substance abuse, only 9% occured for that reason.
Another reason younger adults fall is they try to multitask. But the simple fact remains that the human brain can’t multitask. Multitasking is a myth
It can switch quickly between tasks, giving the appearance of multitasking. But truly focusing on two activities at once can’t be done. In reality, “multitasking” only reduces your effectiveness at the activities in which you multitask.
The human brain can’t perform two tasks that require high level brain function at once. Low-level functions like breathing and pumping blood aren’t considered multitasking.
Yes. Everyone falls. The reasons differ. But falls happen. The good news is that most falls are preventable.
And now that you have a better understanding of what causes them, you have a higher chance of avoiding falls.