Risk Of Elderly Patients

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Seong-Il and Duk-hyun (2014) identified that elderly patients have a 10 times higher risk for falls than any other age groups. They also stated that this is because of the physiological changes their bodies are going through which attributes to why 30-50 percent of the elderly pop-ulation experience falls every year (p. 1771). There are also a number of other risk factors that may put patients at a higher risk for falls. According to Suzuki, Kurata, Yamamoto, Makino, and Kanamori (2012), “dementia and cognitive impairment are well-known major risk factors for falls and fall-related injuries in the elderly patients” (p. 439). de Souza Moreira et al. (2015) identifies that some behavioral and emotionally linked traits may also play …show more content…
(2015) is that patient who have a fear of falling often change their behav-ior’s to prevent a fall, but unfortunately these changes often end up the direct cause of a fall (p. 90). Assessment of elderly patients must include a thorough understanding of their physiological condition, cognitive abilities, and unique behavioral and emotional condition in order to effec-tively assess their individual risk of falls. A fall can result in debilitating injury or even death but the reality is that many of these falls are preventable. The first step to reducing the prevalence of falls in the clinical setting is to identify what factors may put patients at risk. The purpose of this paper is to identify key factors which contribute to falls in elderly patients, to suggest methods to assess, and manage these risks. Furthermore this paper serves to aid in reducing the prevalence of falls in the elderly population and provide suggestion for further research on fall prevention …show more content…
de Souza et al. (2015) cited de Rooij and Zijlstra that “fear of falling has not only been linked to in-creased fall risk in elderly but can also lead to a decreased quality of life, and increased risk of hospitalization, depression, loss of social connectivity, and physical deterioration" (p. 90). Help-ing patients manage these fears could be the key to reducing not only falls but many other issues common in elderly clients. Further research on the fear of falling and its effects on patient quality of life and their psychosocial state could reduce many problems within the elderly population. Optimal research would include the effect of confidence boosting through counselling and mus-cle stability exercises in reducing a client’s fear of falling. It should also comparatively examine the effects of the confidence boosting and original physical shape of their bodies before and after the