Health care consequences of falls for seniors.

OBJECTIVES This article examines falls that caused a serious injury among people aged 65 or older living in private households. Based on an analysis of people followed over a two-year period, it focuses on the association of a fall in 1994/95 with subsequent health care. DATA SOURCE The data are from the household component of the 1994/95 and 1996/97 cycles of the National Population Health Survey conducted by Statistics Canada. Longitudinal and cross-sectional data are from a sample of 2,081 people aged 65 or older in 1994/95 for whom data were available and who were still alive in 1996/97. An additional 11,282 elderly people in this age group provided cross-sectional data in 1996/97, yielding a total sample of 13,363. ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES In addition to descriptive statistics, multivariate analyses were used to study the associations between injurious falls and subsequent entry into care, controlling for selected factors. MAIN RESULTS After controlling for age, decline in ability to perform activities of daily living, and other factors, the odds of entry into care were three times as high for seniors who reported an injurious fall in 1994/95 as for those who did not.