Personal Injury Blog

Obese Senior Citizens at High Risk for Slip and Fall Accidents

January 4th, 2012
obese senior citizens

Senior citizens who are overweight are at high risk for slip and fall accidents

Obese senior citizens may be at a higher risk of suffering fall accidents compared to elders who are thin.  However, their obesity could provide some amount of cushioning against serious injuries in these accidents.

That information comes from a study reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The researchers investigated 10,755 Americans above the age 65.  These people were surveyed between 1998 and 2006.  During the same time, the researchers noted that the group suffered a total of 9, 621 fall accidents.  These resulted in more than 3,100 injuries that required medical attention.  Out of the people who suffered a fall accident, approximately 23% were obese.  In comparison, just about 20% of the persons who did not fall were obese.

The researchers factored in a number of conditions that are linked to both obesity and a higher risk of falls, like leg pain, diabetes and arthritis.  However, even after accounting for these factors, they found that obesity was linked to a much higher fall accident risk.

However, obesity does seem to offer some kind of protection against serious injuries.  Researchers found that the most severely obese adults were up to one-third less likely to suffer serious injuries than persons of normal weight.  A severely obese senior citizen was defined as someone with a BMI or body mass index of 40 or higher.  However, people who were just moderately obese did not enjoy such protection from serious injuries.  In fact, interestingly enough, the researchers found that people who were moderately obese were actually at a higher risk of suffering long-term disability after a fall compared to persons of normal weight.

Not surprisingly to San Diego slip and fall accident lawyers, the research found that overall, 4,304 of the fall accidents resulted in long-term disabilities after the accident.  People who suffer from mild obesity were 17% more likely to report a disability after a fall accident.  Mild obesity was defined as a body mass index of 30 to 34.9.  Persons who had a body mass index of between 35 and 39.9 were up to 39% more likely to suffer a disability after a fall.

According to the results, obese older people may be at a much higher risk for fall accidents, because they have balance and gait problems.  These people may not be able to stop a fall as easily as thinner people might be able to.  However people who are severely obese may have some kind of protection from fractures and other serious injuries, compared to thinner elders.  Overall, the study found that obese persons who suffer from a serious injury were less  likely to recover faster because of their poor physical condition.

 

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