The Centre of Excellence on Mobility, Fall Prevention and Injury in Aging (CEMFIA) represents a unique collaborative of researchers, health care providers and policy makers with a shared goal of improving the health and safety of older British Columbians. The Centre was established in April 2009 within the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility (CHHM) situated at the Vancouver General Hospital campus. The CEMFIA mandate is to enhance mobility and reduce the risk for falls and fall-related injuries among older British Columbians, in partnership with the BC Fall and Injury Prevention Coalition, the CHHM, the BC Injury Research & Prevention Unit, University partners, and other fall prevention stakeholders in British Columbia.

• CEMFIA represents a collaborative of key stakeholders including:
  BC Fall and Injury Prevention Coalition: a multisectoral alliance of individuals representing regional health authorities, the policy makers at all levels of government, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, professional associations, and First Nations and community agencies who are concerned about the need to reduce falls and fall-related injuries among older persons in British Columbia;
• University and Clinical partners: from all BC Universities, including over 100 scientists and clinicians within the CHHM and BCIRPU; these investigators have national and international prominence to improve the mobility of Canadians. Specifically, CHHM research aims to prevent, and treat limitations to mobility including fall-related injuries;
• Community Partners: representatives from community organizations and private businesses who are working with older persons to enhance mobility and reduce the risk of falls and related injuries among older British Columbians.

As shown in the following figure, key activities of CEMFIA are to provide education and awareness opportunities; generate innovations in risk assessment, proven prevention strategies and new technologies; conduct environmental scans of current research and clinical needs; report on epidemiology and economic burden of injury outcomes; and facilitate the translation of knowledge to improve the health of aging British Columbians.

 

The Residential Care Summit: "Fall & Injury Prevention Research to Action," held on Nov. 5-6 in Victoria, was a great success. It brought together residential care fall prevention stakeholders from across BC and Canada. The Summit Proceedings Report, which will include a Residential Care Fall Prevention Toolkit, will be released this winter. These will help residential care operators, care providers, policy makers and other stakeholders adapt to the new fall prevention legislation that recently came into effect in BC and Canada.

 

See CEMFIA Overview

The first-ever Canadian Fall Prevention Conference was held at the Pacific Palisades Hotel in Vancouver, BC, on March 22 and 23, 2010. The conference brought together over 180 fall prevention and knowledge translation experts and stakeholders from across Canada, the United States, Australia, South Africa and elsewhere. The conference initiated key discussions on knowledge translation and the bridging of gaps between fall prevention research, policy and practice around the world.

Below are links to the plenary speakers' presentations. For other select concurrent and rapid-fire presentations, please contact Fahra Rajabali.

 

Prepared by: Vicky Scott, PhD, RN, Lori Wagar, MSc, Sarah Elliott, BSc

The fall of an older adult can have an enduring and devastating impact, resulting in injury, chronic disease, a reduced quality of life and, in severe cases, death. It is estimated that one in three persons over the age of 65 is likely to fall at least once each year1, and in Canada, this translated to approximately 1.4 million seniors who fell at least once in 2005. By 2031, it is projected that older adults will make up 24% of Canada's entire population and approximately $4.4 billion will be spent on direct health care costs for fall-related injuries among this age population2.

This new report, prepared for the Division of Aging and Seniors, Public Health Agency of Canada,  is an analysis of the 2008/2009 Canadian hospitalization data for fall-related injuries among persons aged 65 years and older .  The analysis is followed by the results of a scan of fall prevention programs currently operating across Canada.  The appendices to this document include a list of definitions of terms, the survey tool used in the scan of programs, and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) epidemiological data.

Highlights of the analysis and findings include:

• In the year 2008/2009, 53,545 Canadians aged 65+ were hospitalized for a fall.  This translated to an age-standardized rate of 15.5 per 1,000 seniors.
• While both males and females have increasing rates of hospitalization by age, females were hospitalized for a fall at a higher rate than for males in comparable age groups.
• Fall-related injuries are the leading cause of injury hospitalization for seniors in all Canadian provinces and territories and comprise between 73% (Territories) and 88% (Nova Scotia) of all injury-related hospitalizations.
• When compared to all reasons for hospitalization among Canadian seniors, fall-related hospitalizations account for 7.3%, with Newfoundland having the lowest percentage (5.3%) and British Columbia having the highest (8.2%).
• Over half (51%) of falls resulting in hospitalization (N=27,306) occurred in or around the home; falls in residential institutions accounted for 18% (N=9,462) of hospitalizations due to falls among those aged 65 and older.
• In Canada, 38% of all seniors who were hospitalized because of a fall had sustained a hip fracture and 39% sustained other types of fractures.
• The average acute length of stay for a fall-related injury was 70% longer (15.1 days) for Canada as a whole compared to the average length of stay for all other causes of hospitalization excluding falls (8.9 days) in 2008/2009.
• This scan of Canadian fall prevention programs captured 282 programs across the country.

 

1 World Health Organization, 2008; Scott, Peck & Kendall, 2004; Tinetti & Speechley, 1989; O’Laughlin et al., 1993.
2 SmartRisk, 2010.

For further information, please contact Sarah Elliott at sarah.elliott@gov.bc.ca.
Prepared for: Division of Aging and Seniors, Public Health Agency of Canada

Citation: Scott, V., Wagar, L., & Elliott, S. (2010).  Falls & related injuries among older Canadians: Fall-related hospitalizations & intervention initiatives.  Prepared on behalf of the Public Health Agency of Canada, Division of Aging and Seniors.  Victoria, BC: Victoria Scott Consulting.
 

 

In conjunction with this year's Seniors' Fall Prevention Week in BC (November 2-8, 2010) and the CEMFIA Residential Care Summit, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) has produced a NEW brochure: Fall-Related Hospitalizations in Seniors: Canada and B.C., 2007-2008.