You may already know that changes to an older person’s hearing and eyesight have been linked to an increased risk of developing dementia.
But a recent study published in JAMA Network Open says falls seem to be associated with the condition too ― even when compared to other injuries.
Researchers looked at the 2014-15 Medicare claims of over 2.5 million older adults (66+) who had been admitted to a hospital’s emergency room. Half of those had been taken in for a fall.
That tracks: the NHS says “around one in three adults over 65 and half of people over 80 will have at least one fall a year”.
After following up on those patients’ claims a year later, researchers found that dementia diagnoses were more common (10.6%) among those who’d had a fall than those with other injuries (6.1%).
What does that mean?
It doesn’t prove that falls cause dementia, and the study stresses that it doesn’t show causality.
The scientists acknowledged that using Medicare data, which does not show other factors like the participants’ prescriptions, means “it is possible that some preexisting diagnoses were missed”.
But the study’s lead author, Dr Molly Jarman of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said: “The relationship between falls and dementia appears to be a two-way street.”
“Cognitive decline can increase the likelihood of falls, but trauma from those falls may also accelerate dementia’s progression and make a diagnosis more likely down the line,” she added in a statement.
“Thus, falls may be able to act as precursor events that can help us identify people who need further cognitive screening.”
So what’s the recommendation?
The researchers suggest it’d be a good idea to start screening older adults for cognitive impairments after a fall.
“Implementing cognitive screening after falls will require a multidisciplinary effort involving the breadth of clinicians who care for older adults after a fall, ranging from trauma surgeons to geriatricians and primary care physicians,” their study reads.
“Cognitive screening recommendations should be included in the American College of Surgeons Geriatric Trauma Best Practices Guidelines and other guidelines concerning the care of injured older adults.”