Older people may be more likely to develop dementia in the year after a bad fall

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-10-01 01:00

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Older people who are injured from a fall may be more likely to develop dementia in the following year, compared to different types of injury, according to international researchers. The team looked at nearly 2.5 million older US adults who had experienced a traumatic injury and investigated dementia diagnoses within a year. Half the people had been injured in a fall, and the researchers say 10.6% of this group were diagnosed with Alzheimer's or a related dementia during the study. Among those injured in another way, 6.1% were diagnosed with dementia during the study. This study can't show why falls are linked with a higher dementia risk, but the researchers say cognitive screening for older people after they have a fall requiring hospital treatment could help identify dementia cases earlier.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, USA

Funder: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under award number K01AG065414

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