The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #74529

Barbara Alberson, MPH, CA Dept. of Health Services, State and Local Injury Control Section, California Department of Health Services, 601 North 7th St., MS 675, Sacramento, CA 94234-7320, (916) 323-3486, balberso@dhs.ca.gov

Falls, already the leading cause of combined morbidity and mortality for those over age 65, are escalating at alarming rates. Without successful initiatives aimed at reducing the incidence of falls, the drain on health resources in this century will be staggering. This epidemiological presentation will focus on national data and then use California as an example of the public health imperative for action.

In California, falls cause 20% of the injury deaths and an astonishing 69% of all injury-related hospitalizations of seniors (conservatively over $1 billion in acute health care costs per year). Hip fractures are the most common, severe and costly consequences of a fall. Some 534,000 California women age 45 and over are expected to suffer hip fractures between now and 2015; and the cost to California’s health care system for these fractures among women age 45 and over will rise to $2.1 billion by 2015. This is a 63% increase in just twenty years (based on the $494 million spent in 1995).

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Illustrate the anticipated increases in costs to health care due to falls projections in the elderly between now and 2015
• 2. Discuss the anticipated increases in injuries resulting from falls in California’s population over age 45

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.