Falls are the leading cause of injury deaths, hospitalizations, and emergency department (ED) visits for New York State (NYS) residents 65+. Each year an average of 1,013 New Yorkers 65+ die as a result of a fall, 52,640 are hospitalized, and 88,930 outpatients are treated at an ED.
METHODS:
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) includes rotating core questions on falls and fall injuries. These data can be used categorize incidents of falls but are not designed to explore behavior. The National Council on Aging organized an Evaluation Committee comprised of members of States Coalitions on Fall Prevention to develop guidelines for use to evaluate state and local prevention efforts. The guidelines included two new state-specific BRFSS falls behavior questions. These questions ask in the past 12 months: 1) Have you done things to reduce your chance of falling? 2) Have you done anything to help an older person reduce his/her chance of falling? The 2012 NYS BRFSS was used to assess both fall incidents and behavior.
RESULTS:
Falls were reported by 28.2%, and of those that fell, injuries were reported by 39.4%, neither were significantly different by age group (45-64 vs. 65+). Among people who fell, those who sustained a fall injury were 1.6 times more likely to reduce their chance of falling (p=.02) but were not more likely to help reduce an older adult’s chance of falling. People who were more likely to have done things to reduce their chance of falling included adults 65+ (p<.01), have fallen themselves (p<.01), and help an older adult reduce their fall risk (p<.01). People who were more likely to have helped an older adult reduce their fall risk were more likely to be younger (p<.04) and have fallen themselves (p=.04). Those experiencing falls or fall injuries, and those that have done things to reduce his/her chance of falling were more likely to be not married or have a partner, experience mental health limitation days, have disabilities, and report fair/poor health status.
CONCLUSIONS:
The two new state-specific questions provide insight into behavior towards reducing fall risk which was not available in the standard BRFSS questions. These two fall behavior questions were also asked in 2014 and will be asked again in 2016. Changes over time seen in our results will shed light on the effectiveness of increased efforts within NYS to inform the public about the importance of fall prevention.