TALK TO YOUR PHYSICIAN, REVIEW YOUR MEDICATIONS:
- Polypharmacy- the use of multiple medications due to health issues
- Average of 2-6 prescribed medications and 1 to 3.4 non-prescribed medications
- 66% of older adults use one or more drugs daily (Heuberger and Caudell, 2011)
- The highest risk of falls are associated with psychotropic medications (The American Geriatrics Society, 2014)
GET A VISION EXAM:
- Impaired vision leads to misjudgment of distance and spatial information (Ambrose, Paul, and Hausdorff, 20 13)
- Individuals with visual impairment are 7x more likely to have a fall (Newton and Sanderson, 2013)
- Persons who wear multifocal lenses are 2x more likely to fall (Al- Aama, 2011)
- Have a vision exam once a year (NCOA, 2014)
NUTRITION:
- Nutrition risk precedes malnutrition (Watson, Zhang, & Wilkinson, 2010)
- Age-related loss of muscle mass is associated with undernutrition (Stoltz et al., 2002)
- Prevalence of undernutrition in older adults is around 20 to 60% (Stoltz et al., 2002)
- Elevated body mass index of 30 kg/m2 is associated with an increased tendency of falls (Stoltz et al., 2002)
