Injurious Falls in Older Adults May Be a Harbinger of Dementia

Older people with Alzheimer disease or its precursor, mild cognitive impairment, face an increased risk of falling, but researchers have now found that a fall could serve as a "sentinel event" that marks future risk for dementia. In a recent study published in JAMA Network Open, researchers collected claims data for older adults enrolled in Medicare. The cohort comprised nearly 2.5 million adults aged 66 years or older who had sustained a traumatic injury that resulted in inpatient or emergency department care from 2014 to 2015. Patients with existing dementia diagnoses at the time of injury were excluded. Of the patients who experienced a fall, more than 10% were diagnosed with dementia within a year. The same was true for only about 6% of patients with different types of injury. Compared with other types of injury, falling had a 21% increased risk of subsequent dementia diagnosis after accounting for possible confounding factors.