From emily at tcaging.org Mon May 4 07:54:12 2009 From: emily at tcaging.org (Emily Farah-Miller) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 07:54:12 -0500 Subject: [Fallsprevention] MNFP Listserv - May 4 Message-ID: <80B2A7179839464CB92F45D5F4BC8FB02ACA697303@exch.tcaging.org> Visit the Atlas of Minnesota online for social and economic characteristics of Minnesotans The website features 100+ maps including maps on people (e.g. population age 65 and over) and income (e.g. elderly in poverty). For more information, please visit: http://www.mnsu.edu/ruralmn/pages/Publications/Atlas/Atlasonline/indexatlas/indexatlas.php ------------------------ The Home Safety Council Hosts a Free Webinar to Share Resources and Strategies to Help You Prevent Home Injuries Who: The nonprofit Home Safety Council urges you to take part in our annual Home Safety Month campaign this June. To help you get started, we're offering a free Webinar to share ideas and information. Please join us. What: The Putting Home Safety to Work Webinar. Join Home Safety Council President, Meri-K Appy, and Director of Education and Outreach, Dr. Angela Mickalide, as they introduce you to new research on off-the-job safety and other resources available to help you implement a Home Safety Month campaign in your community. They'll also share a special preview of the Home Safety Council's new Web site. When: Wednesday, May 6, 2009, 2-3 p.m. EDT Where: Online! Click here to register to attend the Webinar. Why: Because home related injuries result in 21 million medical visits and nearly 20,000 deaths each year. June is Home Safety Month and we want you to be prepared to implement a successful home safety campaign in your community! For more information, please visit: http://www.homesafetycouncil.org/homesafetymonth/hsm_webinar_w001.aspx ------------------------ National Osteoporosis Foundation Offers Falls Prevention Checklist Online The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and the organization is encouraging individuals to visit its website and download its free 25 Ways to Prevent Falls Checklist. NOF also has made its comprehensive patient education booklet, Boning Up on Osteoporosis, available in Spanish. For a free copy, send an email request to education at nof.org To download the checklist and to learn more about NOF please visit: http://bones.nof.org/site/PageServer?pagename=NOF_25th_Anniversary_Fall_Prevention ------------------------ Exercise Can Improve Balance For Older Americans Balance can degenerate with age and health problems. But many therapists say there are exercises that can make a difference for older Americans. Listen to the National Public Radio's show that aired April 27, 2009, available at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103516803 ------------------------ Number of U.S. Adults Reporting Disabilities Is Increasing Since 1994, disability-related costs for medical care and lost productivity have exceeded an estimated $300 billion annually in the United States. To update previous reports on the prevalence and most common causes of disability among adults, CDC and the U.S. Census Bureau analyzed the most recent data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). This report summarizes the findings of that analysis, which indicated that the prevalence of disability in 2005 (21.8%) remained unchanged from 1999 (22.0%); however, because of the aging of the population, particularly the large group born during 1946--1964 ("baby boomers"), the estimated absolute number of persons reporting a disability increased 7.7%, from 44.1 to 47.5 million. The three most common causes of disability continued to be arthritis or rheumatism (affecting an estimated 8.6 million persons), back or spine problems (7.6 million), and heart trouble (3.0 million). Women (24.4%) had a significantly higher prevalence of disability compared with men (19.1%) at all ages. For both sexes, the prevalence of disability doubled in successive age groups (18--44 years, 11.0%; 45--64 years, 23.9%; and ?65 years, 51.8%). The number of adults reporting a disability likely will increase, along with the need for appropriate medical and public health services, as more persons enter the highest risk age group (?65 years). To accommodate the expected increase in demand for disability-related medical and public health services, expanding the reach of effective strategies and interventions aimed at preventing progression to disability and improving disability management in the population is necessary. For more information, please read Prevalence and Most Common Causes of Disability Among Adults --- United States, 2005 available at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5816a2.htm ------------------------ Preventing Falls and Related Fractures Falls are serious at any age, and breaking a bone after a fall becomes more likely as a person ages. Many of us know someone who has fallen and broken a bone. While healing, the fracture limits the person's activities and sometimes requires surgery. Often, the person wears a heavy cast to support the broken bone and needs physical therapy to resume normal activities. People are often unaware of the frequent link between a broken bone and osteoporosis. It is known as a silent disease because it progresses without symptoms, osteoporosis involves the gradual loss of bone tissue or bone density and results in bones so fragile they break under the slightest strain. Consequently, falls are especially dangerous for people who are unaware that they have low bone density. If the patient and the doctor fail to connect the broken bone to osteoporosis, the chance to make a diagnosis with a bone density test and begin a prevention or treatment program is lost. Bone loss continues, and other bones may break. For more information, please visit: http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Bone/Osteoporosis/Fracture/preventing_falls.asp ------------------------ The Minnesota Falls Prevention Listserv is a vehicle for sharing information related to the Minnesota Falls Prevention Initiative, led by the MN Board on Aging in partnership with the MN Department of Human Services, MN Department of Health and numerous public and private organizations. The Minnesota Falls Prevention Listserv is comprised of 330+ individuals throughout Minnesota, please use this resource to share information and access the expertise of those professionals subscribed to the listserv. To post to the listserv, send your message to: fallsprevention at mailman.stpaul.visi.com To subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the listserv, please visit: http://mailman.stpaul.visi.com/mailman/listinfo/fallsprevention Keep Minnesotans Right Side Up! Learn the easy ways we can reduce falls for Minnesotans, please visit the Minnesota Falls Prevention website at: http://www.mnfallsprevention.org/ ------------------------ Emily Farah-Miller Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging 2365 N McKnight Rd North Saint Paul, MN 55109 Phone: 651-245-2927 Fax: 651-641-8618 emily at tcaging.org www.tcaging.org www.mnfallsprevention.org Caution: This e-mail and attached documents, if any, may contain information that is protected by state or federal law. E-mail containing private or protected information should not be sent over a public (nonsecure) Internet unless it is encrypted pursuant to Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging, Inc. standards. This e-mail should be forwarded only on a strictly need-to-know basis. If you are not the intended recipient, please: (1) notify the sender immediately, (2) do not forward the message, (3) do not print the message and (4) erase the message from your system. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.stpaul.visi.com/pipermail/fallsprevention/attachments/20090504/872f0a7c/attachment-0001.htm From emily at tcaging.org Mon May 18 07:47:53 2009 From: emily at tcaging.org (Emily Farah-Miller) Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 07:47:53 -0500 Subject: [Fallsprevention] MNFP Listserv - May 18 Message-ID: <80B2A7179839464CB92F45D5F4BC8FB02ACA6973DC@exch.tcaging.org> Growing old is changing in Minnesota Planning to retire sometime in the next decade? Prepare yourself, because aging Minnesotans will see a transformation of elder care. For more information, please visit: http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=2&a=399751 ------------------------ Researchers are pioneering the use of 'smart cameras' to help monitor elderly people who live alone "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!" - so goes the catch line of a 1989 infomercial for a product designed as a simple alert system to aid people living alone. The ad, though amateurish, reminds the viewer of what it could be like to be old, infirm and living alone. When an elderly person suddenly is incapacitated at home, they may be unable to get help, perhaps for hours or even days. Two faculty members in Yale's School of Engineering & Applied Science are pioneering the use of "smart cameras" to address these and related issues. For more information, please visit: http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=94142 ------------------------ Older Adults Who Worry About Health Less Likely to Exercise Older adults who worry about their health often opt out of physical activity - and as a result, they may have greater trouble walking and getting around as they age, new research suggests. Older adults who worry about their health engage in less physical activity, and those who participate in less activity are more likely to report having difficulty walking, according to a new study. The research, featured in the March issue of Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, was conducted by lead author Kin-Kit Li. Mobility, which declines with aging, has been identified as one of the key topics in aging research, as walking difficulty reduces quality of life. Health worry has been suggested to have an interesting mix of effects on health behaviors and outcomes. This study showed that in a representative sample of older adults in the United States, people with a high degree of health worry engaged in less physical activity. For more information, please visit: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,516953,00.html?sPage=fnc/health/fitness ------------------------ Exercise most successful intervention for reducing falls Each year, one in three people ages 65 years and older fall in the United States and in Canada. While not all falls lead to injury, those that do can result in emergency room visits, hospitalization, bone fracture and death. REVIEW: A total of 111 randomized controlled trials testing a falls-reduction intervention were included in the systematic review, representing 55,303 older people. Trials included interventions using group and individual home-based exercise programs, vitamin D for reducing muscle weakness, home safety improvements, cataract surgery for improving vision, and combination interventions based on individual assessments. FINDINGS: Exercise programs that included two or more components (strength, balance, flexibility, endurance) reduced the number of people who fell and the rate of falls. The results were maintained whether exercising in a supervised group or independently. Interventions that followed assessment with referrals for treatment to reduce risk of falling were effective in some studies and ineffective in others. Overall, these multifactor interventions did reduce rates of falls. Home safety interventions only reduced falls for people who were at high risk or had severely impaired vision. There was evidence from single trials that falls are reduced by some other interventions: gradual withdrawal from some types of drugs taken to improve sleep, treatments to reduce anxiety and or depression; cataract surgery on the first affected eye, and anti-slip shoes for icy conditions. Vitamin D showed potential for reducing the risk of falls only in those with vitamin D deficiencies. COMMENT: "Programs that contain a combination of [the four] components reduce falls. These include exercising in supervised groups, participating in Tai Chi, and carrying out individually prescribed exercise programs at home," said lead researcher Lesley Gillespie. "What remains less clear is whether some other interventions really do reduce falls. Some may be of more benefit to those at higher risk of falling. There also seem to be differences in the effectiveness of some kinds of interventions when carried out in different health care settings." SOURCE: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 2 (April 2009) For more information, please visit: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090415074945.htm ------------------------ Prevention of Falls Network Europe Newsletter For more information, please visit: http://www.profane.eu.org/newsletters/pdf/ProFaNE_NL_Volume02_Issue02.pdf ------------------------ Researchers Study How The Elderly Fall in Order to Teach Them How to Fall Better Falls are the number one contributor to deaths in older Americans due to accident. In fact, every 18 seconds, an older adult is in the emergency room because of a fall, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Grabiner's research team at the University of Illinois at Chicago studies women age 62 and older by putting them through a battery of slip and trip tests. He uses women because statistics show it's the group most at risk for these types of falls. For more information, please visit: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=7571469&page=1 ------------------------ Vitamin D: It's Necessary, but Getting Enough of It Is Not Necessarily Easy For more information, please visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/11/AR2009051102099.html ------------------------ Guide to Community Preventive Services The Guide to Community Preventive Services is a free resource to help you choose programs and policies to improve health and prevent disease in your community. Systematic reviews are used to answer these questions: -Which program and policy interventions have been proven effective? -Are there effective interventions that are right for my community? -What might effective interventions cost; what is the likely return on investment? For more information, please visit: http://www.thecommunityguide.org/index.html ------------------------ 2010 Best Practices in Health Promotion/Wellness and Aging Application The Health Promotion Institute's Best Practice Award recognizes a program, initiative, or service that enhances the health and wellness of older adults. Award-winning entries are evaluated based upon need assessment, innovation, collaborative partnerships, implementation procedures, and outcome evaluation. The winning entries will be recognized at the 2010 annual conference of National Council on Aging and the American Society on Aging in Chicago, IL. Application deadline is Friday, July 17th, 2009. For more information, please visit: http://ncoa.org/content.cfm?sectionID=37&detail=2802 ------------------------ Award To Recognize Civic Engagement Promoters Nominations are now being accepted for the 2009 MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures Encore Opportunity Awards, which recognize innovative organizations that effectively tap the passion and experience of people over age 50 to improve society. Deadline: June 1, 2009 For more information, please visit: http://civicventures.org/encoreopportunity/ ------------------------ The Minnesota Falls Prevention Listserv is a vehicle for sharing information related to the Minnesota Falls Prevention Initiative, led by the MN Board on Aging in partnership with the MN Department of Human Services, MN Department of Health and numerous public and private organizations. The Minnesota Falls Prevention Listserv is comprised of 330+ individuals throughout Minnesota, please use this resource to share information and access the expertise of those professionals subscribed to the listserv. To post to the listserv, send your message to: fallsprevention at mailman.stpaul.visi.com To subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the listserv, please visit: http://mailman.stpaul.visi.com/mailman/listinfo/fallsprevention Keep Minnesotans Right Side Up! Learn the easy ways we can reduce falls for Minnesotans, please visit the Minnesota Falls Prevention website at: http://www.mnfallsprevention.org/ ------------------------ Emily Farah-Miller Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging 2365 N McKnight Rd North Saint Paul, MN 55109 Phone: 651-245-2927 Fax: 651-641-8618 emily at tcaging.org www.tcaging.org www.mnfallsprevention.org Caution: This e-mail and attached documents, if any, may contain information that is protected by state or federal law. E-mail containing private or protected information should not be sent over a public (nonsecure) Internet unless it is encrypted pursuant to Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging, Inc. standards. This e-mail should be forwarded only on a strictly need-to-know basis. If you are not the intended recipient, please: (1) notify the sender immediately, (2) do not forward the message, (3) do not print the message and (4) erase the message from your system. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.stpaul.visi.com/pipermail/fallsprevention/attachments/20090518/944fa2c2/attachment-0001.htm From emily at tcaging.org Tue May 26 07:32:26 2009 From: emily at tcaging.org (Emily Farah-Miller) Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 07:32:26 -0500 Subject: [Fallsprevention] MNFP Listserv - May 26 Message-ID: <80B2A7179839464CB92F45D5F4BC8FB02ACA697433@exch.tcaging.org> 4 Feet and a Tail, and the Cause of Many Falls Today, about 235 people will wind up in an emergency room with an injury caused by a fall involving a cat or a dog. For more information, please visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/health/19stat.html?_r=1 ------------------------ Fall-Proofing Offers Return on Investment The cost of fall-proofing a hospital room or building as a primary prevention intervention is cost-effective, report researchers in the April issue of Critical Care Nursing Quarterly. This is true when compared with the overall expense of litigation, treatment of injuries sustained during a fall, and prolonged length of stay. The article, Falls Aren't Us, reviews the health and medical literature on accidental falls and fall prevention modalities for hospitalized elderly over a 15-year period. For more information, please visit: Critical Care Nursing Quarterly, April/June 2009 - Volume 32 - Issue 2 - p 116-127 ------------------------ Elderly need more 'sun vitamin' BBC News, May 16, 2009 Spending more time in the sun could help older people cut their risk of heart disease and diabetes say experts. Sun exposure helps the skin make vitamin D - a vitamin older people are generally deficient in due to their lifestyles and ageing processes. For more information, please visit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8043297.stm ------------------------ Award To Recognize Civic Engagement Promoters Nominations are now being accepted for the 2009 MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures Encore Opportunity Awards, which recognize innovative organizations that effectively tap the passion and experience of people over age 50 to improve society. Deadline: June 1, 2009 For more information, please visit: http://civicventures.org/encoreopportunity ------------------------ Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program provides two years of support to postdoctoral scholars at all stages of their careers to build the nation's capacity for research and leadership to address the multiple determinants of population health and contribute to policy change. The program is based on the principle that progress in the field of population health depends upon multidisciplinary collaboration and exchange. Its goal is to improve health by training scholars to: 1) investigate the connections among biological, genetic, behavioral, environmental, economic and social determinants of health; and 2) develop, evaluate and disseminate knowledge and interventions that integrate and act on these determinants to improve health. Deadline: October 2, 2009 For more information, please visit: http://www.rwjf.org/applications/solicited/cfp.jsp?ID=20741 ------------------------ 2010 Best Practices in Health Promotion/Wellness and Aging Application The Health Promotion Institute's Best Practice Award recognizes a program, initiative, or service that enhances the health and wellness of older adults. Award-winning entries are evaluated based upon need assessment, innovation, collaborative partnerships, implementation procedures, and outcome evaluation. The winning entries will be recognized at the 2010 annual conference of National Council on Aging and the American Society on Aging in Chicago, IL. Application deadline is Friday, July 17th, 2009. For more information, please visit: http://ncoa.org/content.cfm?sectionID=37&detail=2802 ------------------------ The Minnesota Falls Prevention Listserv is a vehicle for sharing information related to the Minnesota Falls Prevention Initiative, led by the MN Board on Aging in partnership with the MN Department of Human Services, MN Department of Health and numerous public and private organizations. The Minnesota Falls Prevention Listserv is comprised of 330+ individuals throughout Minnesota, please use this resource to share information and access the expertise of those professionals subscribed to the listserv. To post to the listserv, send your message to: fallsprevention at mailman.stpaul.visi.com To subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the listserv, please visit: http://mailman.stpaul.visi.com/mailman/listinfo/fallsprevention Keep Minnesotans Right Side Up! Learn the easy ways we can reduce falls for Minnesotans, please visit the Minnesota Falls Prevention website at: http://www.mnfallsprevention.org/ ------------------------ Emily Farah-Miller Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging 2365 N McKnight Rd North Saint Paul, MN 55109 Phone: 651-245-2927 Fax: 651-641-8618 emily at tcaging.org www.tcaging.org www.mnfallsprevention.org Caution: This e-mail and attached documents, if any, may contain information that is protected by state or federal law. E-mail containing private or protected information should not be sent over a public (nonsecure) Internet unless it is encrypted pursuant to Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging, Inc. standards. This e-mail should be forwarded only on a strictly need-to-know basis. If you are not the intended recipient, please: (1) notify the sender immediately, (2) do not forward the message, (3) do not print the message and (4) erase the message from your system. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.stpaul.visi.com/pipermail/fallsprevention/attachments/20090526/b4876cce/attachment.htm