Older adults in the US are increasingly dying from unintentional falls
New York – Older American adults are dying more and more involuntary falls, according to a new federal report published on Wednesday, the whites representing the vast majority of deaths.
From 2003 to 2023, the mortality rates of falls increased by more than 70% for adults aged 65 to 74, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. The rate increased by more than 75% for people aged 75 to 84 and has more than doubled for people aged 85 and over.
“Falls continue to be a public health problem that deserves attention,” said Geoffrey Hoffman, a researcher from the University of Michigan who was not involved in the new report. “It is curious that these rates continue to increase.”
CDC researchers have not tried to respond to the reason why the mortality rates of falls are increasing. But experts say that there can be several reasons, such as the gradual improvement in our understanding of the role that falls play in death and more people living longer – at age when falls are more likely to have fatal consequences.
More than 41,000 Americans of retirement died of falls in 2023, the most recent year for which final statistics based on death certificates are available. This suggests that the falls were blamed in approximately 1 out of 56 deaths among the older Americans that year.
More than half of these 41,000 deaths were people aged 85 and over, the CDC noted, and the whites represented 87% of deaths in the oldest category.
Falls can cause head injury or broken bones that can cause permanent disability and trigger a cascade of other health problems. A number of factors can contribute to falls, including changes in hearing and vision and drugs that can cause light fabric.
Death rates varied considerably from state to state. In 2023, Wisconsin experienced the highest mortality rates in falls, followed by Minnesota, Maine, Oklahoma and Vermont. Wisconsin’s rate was more than five times higher than the lowest state rate, Alabama.
Ice and winter time can partly explain why fatal falls were more frequent in states at the top of the midwest and New England, but experts have also highlighted other things at stake, such as the differences in the way the falls are reported and to what extent they are labeled as a cause of death.
“We have not yet untied why you see such differences in state rates,” said Hoffman, who studies the elderly.
Researchers cannot explain why white people die from falls at higher rates than people in other racial and ethnic groups. In the age group, 85 and over, the mortality rate for white Americans is two or three times higher than any other group, while the older blacks had the mortality rate linked to the lowest fall.
“A kind of flip of the traditional objective of disparity,” said Hoffman, referring to the fact that most other sickness and injury rates, people of color are disproportionately affected.
Staying active can help people avoid falls, say the experts.
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