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.
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.
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.
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.
