12 Facts About Falls

12 Facts About Falls

  1. Around 35% of over 65s will fall in a year, rising approximately to 50% for those aged 80 and over.
  2. 75% of falls are not reported
  3. Falls destroy confidence, increase isolation and reduce independence, with 9% of older people who fall becoming afraid to leave their homes in case they fall again.
  4. In the UK, one in two women and one in five men will suffer a fracture at some point after the aged of 50, mainly because of poor bone health.
  5. About 300,000 fragility fractures occur in the UK annually, including 89,000 hip fractures.
  6. For women, the risk of sustaining a hip fracture is greater than the risk of developing breast cancer.
  7. The combined annual cost of hospital and social care for patients with a hip fracture in the UK was calculated in 2011 by the National Osteoporosis Society as £2.3 billion, or more than £6 million a day, in the UK.
  8. Three million people in the UK are estimated to have osteoporosis.
  9. Each year, fractures in patients aged 60 years and over account for more than 1.5 million hospital bed days in the UK.
  10. 10% of hip fracture patients will die within one month of their fracture, 30% will die within a year and there are 13,800 hip fracture related deaths a year in the UK.
  11. Women who site for more than 9 hours a day are 50% more likely to have a hip fracture than those who site for less than 6 hours a day.
  12. A tailored exercise programme can reduce an individual’s risk of falling by up to 50%.