I'm just talking about falling down can kill people. I wonder if anybody in geriatric medicine is researching same because unfortunately, many falls occur in medical facilities.
After someone falls, they may not ever get back home.
People have always had an increased risk of death soon after a hip fracture - one of the common results - and very common causes - of falls. 25% of people who break their hips die from the complications afterwards - usually it’s pneumonia.
The reason they fall is because of brain changes, that lead to muscle changes that include failure of swallowing and breathing, etc. In other words, a fall that causes serious injury is an indication of deterioration that has already happened, more than a *cause* of deterioration.
There’s lots of research in repair of brain deterioration due to blood vessel disease, hypertension, Alzheimer’s, etc., as well as in preventing loss of bone that results in hip fractures and vertebral fractures (that’s what causes the “widow’s hump” or bowed back in old people, not poor posture). And we’re making slow progress.