Falls are a major public health problem around the world. They cause injuries – sometimes serious – and can have a negative impact on the quality of life of the fallen person and family members. In a stroke, for example, vigilance and immediate treatment can make the difference between lasting health problems and successful recovery.
As important as it is, the topic of safety is strangely enough one that people are often reluctant to talk about. That is one of the reasons why Safety.nl (the knowledge center for injury prevention) organizes National Fall Prevention Week every year. In the week from 3 to 9 October 2022, fall prevention week was held again.
Bad hearing increases the risk of falls ...
Several studies show that bad hearing increases the risk of falling significantly, according to the John Hopkins University, as well as other studies. With hearing impairment, the average falling rate increases by 3 times. According to statistics, about 25 to 40 percent of all people over the age of 65 are hearing impaired. So the risk of falling triples fast.
Hearing aids and balance
Former research already showed, that hearing aids can help prevent people from falling. Researchers believe that the impact of different sounds and the effects of hearing aids and Cochlea-implants have on a person's balance should be researched more.
Hearing aids with fall identification and alert
At the moment, the hearing aids by Starkey are the only hearing aids on the market that have fall detection and send an emergency message from a Smartphone through the Thrive Care App. This alert helps the users of hearing aids, to keep their independence and feel safer while family members have more peace of mind without worrying about the risk of falling. They know that whenever they get a message, the user of the hearing aid has had an unexpected fall.
Here are some facts about falling:
- Falls are the most common reason for fatal injuries by older people.
- Falling situations lead to more than 50,000 injuries in emergency rooms and more than 1,900 deaths every year.
- Due to statistics, in the Netherlands every six minutes an older adult falls, half of them in familiar surroundings.
- For people with light hearing loss (up to 25 dB) the chance of falling is tripled. Per 10 decibels of hearing loss, the risk rises 1.4 times as the initial risk.
- On average, every day, 11 people over the age of 65 die due to the consequences of a fall.
- One out of four older people falls every year, but less than 50 percent tell their doctors about it.