Healthy People 2010 - With Annotations

Chapter 15

Injury and Violence Prevention
Lead Agency: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Goal: Reduce injuries, disabilities, and deaths due to unintentional injuries and violence.


Healthy People 2010 Objectives

Injury Prevention

15-28. Reduce hip fractures among older adults.

Target and baseline:

*Rate per 100,000

Target setting method: Better than the best for 15-28a; 20 percent improvement for 15-28b. (Better than the best will be used when data are available.)

Data source: National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS), CDC, NCHS.

In 1996, falls became the second leading cause of injury deaths among adults aged 65 years and older. In 1997, 9,023 adults over age 65 years died as a result of falls.(48) Falls are the most common cause of injuries and hospital admissions for trauma among elderly persons. Since most fractures are the result of falls, understanding factors that contribute to falling is essential to designing effective intervention strategies. Alcohol use has been implicated in 35 to 63 percent of deaths from falls.(48a) For persons aged 65 years and older, 60 percent of fatal falls occur in the home, 30 percent occur in public places, and 10 percent occur in health care institutions.

The most serious fall-related injury is hip fracture. Approximately 212,000 hip fractures occur each year in the United States among adults aged 65 years and older; 75 to 80 percent of all hip fractures are sustained by females.(49) The impact of these injuries on the quality of life is enormous. Half of all elderly adults hospitalized for hip fracture cannot return home or live independently after the fracture. The total direct cost of all fall injuries for adults aged 65 years and older in 1994 was $20.2 billion.(50) Factors that contribute to falls include difficulties in gait and balance, neurological and musculoskeletal disabilities, psychoactive medications, dementia, and visual impairment.(51) Environmental hazards such as slippery surfaces, uneven floors, poor lighting on stairs, loose rugs, unstable furniture, grab bars in bathrooms, and objects on floors also may play a role.

Read Operational Definition for 15-28a

Read Operational Definition for 15-28b

Read Overview of Injuries

Back to HP 2010 Injury Objectives Page

Rev. 19-Aug-2001 at 20:19 hours.