Older Americans are at increasing risk of dying from injuries, according to a study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Researchers found that Americans 65 and older had increased death rates between 2000 and 2006 from falls (42 percent increase), motorcycle crashes (145 percent), machinery accidents (46 percent), accidental poisoning (34 percent), and drowning (19 percent). Curiously, researchers Guoquing Hu and Susan P. Baker found that death from falls increased among older people, but the incidence of falls did not.
"Alcohol is another contributing risk factor worthy of consideration," said senior author Guoqing. "Given the association between alcohol and injury, recent documented increases in alcohol problems among the elderly may be another partial explanation for the increase in severe falls."
"Our findings reveal significant increases in death rates from several different injury causes," co-author Baker said. "While the overall change in injury mortality among persons 65 and older was small, this study identifies important causes worthy of further investigation."
The research appeared in the February 2010 issue of the journal Injury Prevention.
Motorcycle crashes?
Jolie Breeden is the lead editor and science communicator for Natural Hazards Center publications. She writes and edits for Research Counts; the Quick Response, Mitigation Matters, Public Health, and Weather Ready Research Award report series; as well as for special projects and publications. Breeden graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.