Causes Of Falls In People With Dementia
Causes of Falls in People with Dementia
People with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia tend to be at high risk of falling. They are more than three times likely to fracture their hip when they fall, which leads to surgery and immobility. The death rate for those with Alzheimers is also increased. Therefore, fall prevention for people with dementia is critical.
One of the ways to reduce the amount of falls for those with Alzheimers is to find out why they fall. If we can find out why people with Alzheimers fall more then we can try to anticipate their needs and decrease the number of falls.
Causes of falls are:
Physical weakness, gait changes and poor balance
Some people in the early stages of Alzheimers are in excellent physical shape and walk a lot, whilst others seem to have difficulties before memory problems begin. Previous research has suggested that a decline in gait or balance can be an early indicator in the decline of cognition. As the disease progresses through the middle and later stages, a decline in walking , muscle strength and balance occurs.
Lack of physical exercise
A lack of physical exercise can make all of the above a lot worse. The benefits of regular daily exercise is known to improve daily functioning and cognition.
Memory impairment
As the disease progresses, it can be increasingly difficult to prevent people from falling, in part because of the cognitive decline that is happening. Even though we can continuously tell someone with dementia not to get up and walk about without assistance from a carer, because the memory is impaired, they may continually try to walk independently when it is not safe to do so. Remembering now that they are unable to walk unassisted can be a very difficult change.
Poor judgement
This can be associated with memory impairement and falls occur due to poor decision making skills such as walking up or down a flight of stairs or walking outdoor when icy. Again they do not remember that they are not
People with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia tend to be at high risk of falling. They are more than three times likely to fracture their hip when they fall, which leads to surgery and immobility. The death rate for those with Alzheimers is also increased. Therefore, fall prevention for people with dementia is critical.
One of the ways to reduce the amount of falls for those with Alzheimers is to find out why they fall. If we can find out why people with Alzheimers fall more then we can try to anticipate their needs and decrease the number of falls.
Causes of falls are:
Physical weakness, gait changes and poor balance
Some people in the early stages of Alzheimers are in excellent physical shape and walk a lot, whilst others seem to have difficulties before memory problems begin. Previous research has suggested that a decline in gait or balance can be an early indicator in the decline of cognition. As the disease progresses through the middle and later stages, a decline in walking , muscle strength and balance occurs.
Lack of physical exercise
A lack of physical exercise can make all of the above a lot worse. The benefits of regular daily exercise is known to improve daily functioning and cognition.
Memory impairment
As the disease progresses, it can be increasingly difficult to prevent people from falling, in part because of the cognitive decline that is happening. Even though we can continuously tell someone with dementia not to get up and walk about without assistance from a carer, because the memory is impaired, they may continually try to walk independently when it is not safe to do so. Remembering now that they are unable to walk unassisted can be a very difficult change.
Poor judgement
This can be associated with memory impairement and falls occur due to poor decision making skills such as walking up or down a flight of stairs or walking outdoor when icy. Again they do not remember that they are not