HOME ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS AND THE RISK OF FALL INJURY EVENTS AMONG COMMUNITY-DWELLING OLDER PERSONS

OBJECTIVE: To determine if home environmental hazards increase the ris k of fall injury events among community-dwelling older persons. DESIGN : Population-based case-control study. SETTING: South Miami Beach, Flo rida. PARTICIPANTS: 270 persons aged 65 years and older who sought tre atment at six area hospitals for injuries resulting from falls within the dwelling unit and 691 controls, frequency matched for sex and age, selected randomly from Health Care Financing Administration (Medicare ) files. MAIN INDEPENDENT VARIABLES: The home environment of each pers on, assessed directly by interviewers using a standardized instrument. RESULTS: Environmental hazards were present in nearly all dwelling un its. After adjusting for important confounding factors, most of these hazards were not associated with an increased risk of fall injury even ts among most older persons. Increasing numbers of tripping hazards, o r total hazards in the dwelling unit, did not increase the risk of fal l injury events, nor was there an increasing trend it risk. CONCLUSION S: Current fall-prevention strategies of finding and changing all envi ronmental hazards in all community-dwelling older persons' homes may h ave less potential effect than previously thought. The usefulness of g rab bars, however, appears to warrant further evaluation.