Review of Impact of Medications on Older Adult Fall and Fire Risk
Fifty-two million Americans aged 65 or older make up 16% of the total US population, yet this age bracket experiences disproportionate injuries and deaths from fire and falls. Falls are the leading cause of death from unintentional injuries for older adults. The NFPA Remembering When™ program is a fire and fall prevention program for older adults developed by NFPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This program is designed to help older adults live safely at home for as long as possible. There are sixteen key messages, eight related to fire prevention and eight related to fall prevention.
The overall goal of this project is to identify the relationship between medication use and fall/fire risk of older adults and generalize findings to inform message development. The results of this project will be used to develop appropriate messaging to be incorporated into NFPA’s Older adult Fall and Fire Prevention program and related assets.