Fall Prevention at Home
Falls are the leading cause of injury among older adults in the United States, and public health agencies aim much of their guidance at the home. This explainer summarizes how that guidance is organized and where the original material lives.
Why public agencies focus on the home
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention runs a falls-prevention initiative called STEADI — Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths and Injuries — built around the observation that most falls among older adults happen during ordinary activities at home: standing up, reaching, walking to the bathroom at night.
Published guidance rarely treats falls as a single cause. It describes a set of contributing factors that public agencies group into two categories: the environment (lighting, floors, stairs, furniture) and the person (strength, balance, vision, hearing, medications, and chronic conditions).
What published checklists tend to include
Checklists from the CDC, the National Council on Aging, and the National Institute on Aging follow a similar list of household items: lighting in hallways and on stairs, handrails on both sides of stairways, grab bars and non-slip surfaces in the bathroom, loose rugs and cords removed from walking paths, and everyday items kept within reach without a step stool.
Footwear, pets underfoot, and night-time trips to the bathroom appear often in the same material, which is why the guidance usually recommends reading a whole home rather than a single room.
Screening and the clinical side
STEADI organizes clinician involvement into three steps it labels screen, assess, and intervene. The material describes asking about falls at routine visits, reviewing medications and vision, and discussing balance and strength programs.
The initiative publishes its own clinical algorithm and patient handouts for anyone who wants to read the source material directly. The links below lead to those publications.
Where this comes from
- CDC — STEADI: Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths & Injuries
- National Institute on Aging — Falls and Falls Prevention
- National Council on Aging
Companion America does not control these sites. This explainer summarizes what they publish; the originals are the authority.
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