The recent dramatic increase in the fall death rate in older Americans is likely the effect of improved reporting quality, according to a new report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy. The report finds the largest increase in the mortality rate occurred immediately following the 1999 introduction of an update to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), suggesting a major change in the way deaths were classified. Several research studies, including one by the report’s authors, found that rates of fatal falls among seniors had risen as much as 42 percent between 2006 and 2006. The results are published in the May-June issue of Public Health Reports. “We had been perplexed by the sudden increase because neither the nonfatal fall rate nor the fall-hospitalization rate increased significantly,” said Susan P. Baker, MPH, a professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “By ruling out these variables, we found that a change in how the underlying cause of death gets reported explains much of the widely-reported increase.” Each year, one in three older adults in the U.S. falls, making falls the leading cause of injury deaths for older Americans. The annual direct and indirect cost of fall injuries is expected to reach $55 billion by 2020. Accurate interpretation of recent trends is critical for understanding the effect of ongoing measures designed to prevent fall injuries in the elderly. “Falls in older adults are indeed a major public health problem, and this report should not suggest otherwise,” concluded Baker. “In fact, it’s likely that for some time we’ve been under-reporting just how many older Americans die as a result of a fall, a hypothesis supported by international comparisons. Additional research and resources are needed to address this problem.” To access the complete press release, please click here.
Dr. Andrea Gielen, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, is the principle investigator on a new grant recently funded by the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD). The awarded study, Safety in Seconds 2.0, is a 5-year, multi-site study which will build on the success of an earlier Injury Center study on the efficacy of computer tailored safety education to families in emergency department waiting rooms. This new intervention is aimed at parents and will focus on the use of child restraint devices - car seats and booster seats – with their children 8 years and younger. “Correct use of a car safety seat is a proven way to keep a child safe in a motor vehicle; far too many families, however, face challenges in correctly installing the seat, properly buckling their child in the seat, or even using the right seat for their child,” said Eileen McDonald, an associate scientist with the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy and an investigator on the new grant. “Our hope is that by tailoring messages to a family’s unique needs and simplifying access to information by creating a parent safety portal, we will be able to improve their understanding and compliance with child passenger safety recommendations.” The project will take place in two emergency department settings, Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and Little Rock’s Arkansas Children’s hospital. These two locations will allow the researchers to test their communication tool with English and Spanish speaking families from urban and non-urban areas.
Dr. Andrea Gielen, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, recently served as the Research Workgroup Co-Chair of the National Action Plan for Child Injury Prevention. The Action Plan, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and 60 stakeholders from around the country, has three goals: To raise awareness about the problem of child injury and the effects on our nation; Highlight prevention solutions by uniting stakeholders around a common set of goals and strategies; and mobilize action on a national, coordinated effort to reduce child injury “While progress has been made in injury prevention, injury remains the number one killer of kids,” said Gielen. “The National Action Plan provides a blueprint for reducing childhood injury by strengthening the collection and interpretation of data and surveillance, promoting research, enhancing communications, improving education and training, advancing health systems and health care, and strengthening policy.” The Action Plan focuses on seven areas of injury for which there are proven prevention methods: motor vehicle related injury, suffocation, drowning, poisoning, fires/burns, falls and sport and recreation injuries. This plan is intended to guide the actions of those responsible for the health and safety of children and adolescents, including federal, state, and local agencies, philanthropies, and non-governmental organizations. Additional stakeholders include schools, child care centers, insurers, businesses, the media, medical institutions, policy makers and health care providers. The full action plan is available on the CDC’s website.
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