Falls are a major health challenge and represent the leading cause of accidental death in older adults. It is essential to identify those factors associated with an increased risk for falls and to develop specific programs for fall prevention. The risk of falling can be assessed in older adults using different parameters, including biological, psychosocial, socioeconomic, behavioral, and environmental factors. For example, the risk of falls increases when vision is impaired, when sleep quality is poor, or when mood is depressed. Moreover, physical parameters, such as changes in body mass and blood pressure are risk factors for falls in older adults.
There are many challenges to assessing the risk of falls in older adults, such as failure in reporting previous falls, which is an important predictor of subsequent falls, and limited data regarding falls in many population groups. Challenges must be overcome by developing methods that are able to quantify an individual's intrinsic stability control mechanisms by using unbiased methods, which may consequently result in the design and implementation of preventive strategies and programs.
In this Research Topic we aim to collect recent advances in the evaluation of the risk of falling and welcome manuscripts describing successful fall prevention strategies.
Falls are a major health challenge and represent the leading cause of accidental death in older adults. It is essential to identify those factors associated with an increased risk for falls and to develop specific programs for fall prevention. The risk of falling can be assessed in older adults using different parameters, including biological, psychosocial, socioeconomic, behavioral, and environmental factors. For example, the risk of falls increases when vision is impaired, when sleep quality is poor, or when mood is depressed. Moreover, physical parameters, such as changes in body mass and blood pressure are risk factors for falls in older adults.
There are many challenges to assessing the risk of falls in older adults, such as failure in reporting previous falls, which is an important predictor of subsequent falls, and limited data regarding falls in many population groups. Challenges must be overcome by developing methods that are able to quantify an individual's intrinsic stability control mechanisms by using unbiased methods, which may consequently result in the design and implementation of preventive strategies and programs.
In this Research Topic we aim to collect recent advances in the evaluation of the risk of falling and welcome manuscripts describing successful fall prevention strategies.