Medication Mismanagement Can Lead to Falls

Q. My 85-year-old mother has had several incidents of falls recently. What’s causing this and how can I ensure she remains safe at home?

Falls could be caused by a number of aging-related issues so it’s important that your mother sees her doctor as soon as possible. A medical professional will be the best person to make an accurate diagnosis. If your mother is on multiple medications, here is one possibility:

Older adults increase their chances of falling by not taking their medications as directed, according to an article in the latest edition of the Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological and Medical Sciences. This new information comes from a recent study of Boston-area residents over age 70, which found that those who sometimes neglected their medications experienced a 50 percent increased rate of falls compared with those who did not.

Sarah D. Berry, MD, MPH and her co-authors at the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew Senior Life in Boston, are the first investigators to study the association between falls and medication adherence.

A study participant was characterized as having low medication adherence if he or she answered “yes” to any of the following questions:

● Do you ever forget to take your medications?

● Are you careless at times about taking your medications?

● When you feel better do you sometimes stop taking your medications? Sometimes if you feel worse when taking your medication, do you stop taking it?

High adherence was defined as a “no” answer to every question. In total, 48 percent of the respondents were classified as having low medication adherence.

Those in the low-adherence group experienced falls at an annual rate of 1.5 times that of the high adherence group.

Be sure your mother shares all her medication information with her medical professional when she visits her doctor. No matter what your age, sometimes it helps to have a second set of eyes and ears when visiting the doctor’s office. If you can’t go along with your mom, why not call a trusted friend or a CAREGiverSM from the locally owned office of the Home Instead Senior Care® network. CAREGivers are screened, bonded, insured and trained in a variety of non-medical home care tasks including medication reminders.

For more information about Home Instead Senior Care of Frederick County, visit www.homeinstead.com/627. For more information about the study, log on to http://www.geron.org/About%20Us/Press%20Room/Archived%20Press%20Releases/72-2010-press-releases/681-irregular-medication-use-puts-seniors-at-risk-for-falling.