New data from a report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sheds new light on falls, revealing how many people are falling and getting injured or dying as a result.

The data shows that falls are the top cause of injury and deaths from injury in adults aged 65 or older. In 2020, approximately one in four older adults reported at least one fall. On average, 100 older adults died every day because of falls in 2021.

The CDC used data from the 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and 2021 the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) in its analysis.

In 2020, 14 million older adults in the United States reported falling, and in 2021, a total of 38,742 died from falls. The estimate of fatal falls in 2021 was higher than in had been in the previous 20 years. The death rate was 91.4 per 100,000 men, and 68.3 per 100,000 women.

The CDC encourages healthcare providers to screen older adults to determine if they’re at risk for falling. If so, strategies like home modification, medication management, and physical therapy can help prevent injury. An evaluation of a New York fall program incorporating these tactics found that older adults at risk for falls who received strategies to address fall risk factors were less likely to be hospitalized for a fall than were those who did not.

Learn more about how home modification like installing Viconic Fall Defense can reduce the risk of fall injuries.