The likelihood of sustaining a fall injury serious enough to
require hospitalisation increases exponentially from about 65 years
of age - especially if you're a woman, says a report released today
by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
The report, Hospitalisation due to falls in older people,
Australia 2003-04, showed that in 2003-04 Australians aged 65
years and older sustained an estimated 60,497 falls that resulted
in injuries serious enough to require hospitalisation.
Clare Bradley of the AIHW's National Injury Surveillance Unit
said 'Fall injury incidents per 100,000 people was 2,300 for people
aged 65 and older, but increased to 9,700 per 100,000 for those
over 90 years of age, and women had a much higher rate overall than
men (2,800 per 100,000 for females compared to 1,600 per 100,000
for males).'
Seven out of ten of those falls resulting in serious injury
occurred in the home or in an aged care facility.
'Serious fall injuries from slipping, tripping or stumbling made
up 34% of fall injury incidents, and serious falls frequently
involved a fracture' Ms Bradley said.
The most frequent type of injury sustained was an injury to the
hip and thigh (34% of fall injuries).
The mean length of stay in hospital for fall injury incidents
was about eight days for both males and females.
'As well as sustaining a higher rate of falls, when elderly
people fall, those falls tend to have more severe consequences,
resulting in longer stays in hospital' Ms Bradley said.
In addition to the cases in which a fall injury was recorded as
the Principal Diagnosis, there were also numerous instances in
which a fall injury was recorded as an Additional Diagnosis.
Another 41,000 fall-related hospital discharges in this category
were identified for people aged 65 years and older in 2003-04.
These separations mainly represent additional episodes of care due
to injuries sustained from falls rather than new falls cases.
Fall-related hospitalisations accounted for fewer than 5% of all
hospital discharges for this age-group in 2003-04, but for almost
11% of all hospital bed-days, reflecting the long hospital stays
often required for fall injuries.
The direct cost of fall-related acute episodes of hospitalised
care was estimated to be $566 million for people aged 65 and older
in 2003-04.
4 July 2007
Further information: Ms Clare Bradley, AIHW,
tel. 61 8 8201 7625.
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 61 2 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability of Hospitalisation due
to falls in older people, Australia 2003-04.