Health
Dementia risk could be higher for older adults who experience this type of injury, study finds
Getting injured after a fall may be an early warning sign of dementia in older adults.
That’s according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open last month.
“This study quantifies a diagnostic pattern that geriatricians and primary care providers have recognized for quite some time – falls often precede a dementia diagnosis and older adults who experience a fall should undergo cognitive screening,” co-author Molly P. Jarman, PhD., deputy director of the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, told Fox News Digital.
PREVENT DANGEROUS FALLS AMONG OLDER ADULTS BY TAKING KEY STEPS
The Boston researchers analyzed U.S. Medicare claims data for more than two million adults age 66 and older who were diagnosed with a traumatic injury that resulted in an emergency department visit or hospital admission from 2014 to 2015.
Half of the injuries were the result of falls.
Getting injured after a fall may be an early warning sign of dementia in older adults, according to a new study. (iStock)
The researchers also reviewed follow-up data for at least one year after the injury, tracking how often the participants were diagnosed with dementia.
Falls are the leading cause of injury for adults 65 years and older.
Among the patients who experienced a fall, 10.6% were diagnosed with some type of dementia within a year.
The study also analyzed data from older adults who experienced an injury from an event other than falling, such as a motor vehicle collision.
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“Among the older adults with other types of injury, only 6.1% were subsequently diagnosed with dementia,” Jarman noted.
After accounting for variables that could potentially influence the results — such as demographics, the severity of injury and underlying medical issues — the patients with fall-related injuries were 20% more likely to be diagnosed with dementia compared to those with other types of injury.
Do falls cause dementia?
Approximately one in 10 U.S. adults over the age of 65 has dementia, past research shows.
One of the main limitations of the research is that it only looked at records back in time – so it’s unclear whether falls are causing dementia or if older adults who are at risk for dementia are more likely to experience a fall, according to the researchers.
Approximately one in 10 U.S. adults over the age of 65 has dementia, past research shows. (iStock)
“We believe the latter is most likely – older adults with mild cognitive impairment or undiagnosed dementia may be more likely to experience a fall due to changes in their gait and balance,” Jarman told Fox News Digital.
“The fall then leads them to have more interaction with the health care system, which results in their dementia diagnosis.”
“When we hear chest pain, we think heart attack — and when we hear falling, we should be thinking dementia risk.”
Michael S. Okun, M.D., medical advisor to the Parkinson’s Foundation and director of the Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at the University of Florida Health, confirmed that when older adults start falling, this could be a potential warning symptom.
He was not part of the study.
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“When, for example, we hear chest pain, we think heart attack — and similarly, when we hear falling, we should be thinking about dementia risk,” Okun told Fox News Digital.
“A good rule of thumb would be to initiate an examination of thinking ability as soon as possible for new onset falling.”
Shifting the paradigm
It is not routine practice to perform cognitive screening for older adults who experience a fall, according to Jarman.
“We hope that the results of our study will encourage clinicians to monitor the cognitive health of older adults who fall,” she said.
Patients with fall-related injuries were 20% more likely to be diagnosed with dementia compared to those with other types of injury. (iStock)
Clinicians could start screening during the initial hospitalization after a fall, Jarman suggested, and the patient’s primary care physician or a geriatrician could then perform a follow-up screening.
“The notion that an elderly person needs only physical therapy after a fall is wrong,” Okun added.
“We should be teaching folks the value of examining brain function in fallers.”
4 steps to preventing falls
Falls are the leading cause of injury for adults 65 years and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
An older adult falls about every second of every day, with one in four reporting falling each year, the same source states.
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“Falls can lead to serious, even life-threatening, injuries in older adults,” Jarman cautioned.
To prevent falls, the CDC recommends completing an inspection to make sure your home is safe. (iStock)
“Patients who fall are at a high risk of losing independence.”
Most falls occur because of a combination of risk factors — and the more risk factors someone has, the greater the likelihood of a fall, the CDC warns.
The agency recommends four practices to prevent falls.
1. Review your risk
First, have an honest discussion with your health care provider about your personal risk of falls, the CDC recommends.
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That also includes reviewing all medications if there is any chance they could make you feel sleepy or dizzy.
2. Keep moving
Regular exercise, such as Tai Chi, helps to improve balance and make your legs stronger to reduce your chances of falling.
Experts recommend asking your doctor which regimen is best for you.
3. Seek medical attention
The CDC recommends getting your eyes and feet checked every year and talking to your health provider about proper footwear.
Regular exercise helps to improve balance and make your legs stronger to reduce your chances of falling. (iStock)
Some people may have undiagnosed vision problems, like glaucoma or cataracts, which can increase the risk of falling, the same source noted.
4. Do a home inspection
Lastly, the agency recommends completing an inspection to make sure your home is safe.
This includes removing clutter, using double-sided tape to keep rugs from slipping, placing items in cabinets that can be easily reached without a step stool, installing grab bars next to and inside tubs, and placing non-slip mats on shower floors.
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People should also consider using nightlights to help guide them to the bathroom and ensuring that the entire home has adequate lighting, the CDC advised.
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Journalist Katie Couric is sharing a scary medical episode that she experienced on June 27.
In a post on Substack titled “The Day I’ll Never Remember,” she detailed a sudden episode that left her unable to recall the current month, year and president.
“I thought it was 2024. And I believed Joe Biden was president,” she wrote.
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The event occurred while Couric was attending the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, during which she participated in two public panels — one on AI and one on journalism — both of which she cannot remember at all.
“I have no idea what we talked about, or of what occurred when the panels ended,” she said.
Journalist Katie Couric is sharing a scary medical episode that she experienced on June 27. (Getty Images)
John Molner — Couric’s husband, who was in attendance at the festival and the two panels — also shared his account.
After the event, someone told Molner that Katie wasn’t feeling well. When he reached her, an EMT and a doctor were tending to her. “I could tell something was off,” he wrote. “It could have been altitude sickness, but Katie was definitely not all there.”
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At the hospital, when Couric struggled to recall the year, the president and her grandchildren’s names, doctors began checking for a stroke.
An MRI revealed no signs of stroke, which was a relief, but “Katie’s ‘fog’ became a lot more apparent,” Molner wrote.
John Molner, Couric’s husband, who was in attendance at the festival and the two panels, also shared his account. (Getty Images)
“She repeatedly asked me the same questions: ‘What was I doing before we got to the hospital?’ ‘Why am I at the hospital?’”
Couric was ultimately diagnosed with transient global amnesia, a sudden, temporary episode of memory loss that prevents a person from forming new memories and may also erase some recent memories, according to Mayo Clinic.
“The cause seems to be as mysterious as the brain itself.”
It is not caused by a stroke, seizure or head injury, and it usually resolves completely within 24 hours.
“[It’s] just a very weird neural episode that’s pretty uncommon and, at least in most cases, is a ‘one and done’ experience,” Molner said.
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Couric said she finally began feeling “like herself” again around 9 p.m. and went to sleep at 2 a.m.
As TGA leaves a “permanent gap in memory” for the duration of the episode and for hours beforehand, Couric said that from around noon on that day until at least 7 p.m. will remain a “big, black hole.”
As TGA leaves a “permanent gap in memory” for the duration of the episode and for hours beforehand, Couric said that from around noon on that day until at least 7 p.m. will remain a “big, black hole.” (Getty Images)
Data shows that approximately three to eight people per 100,000 will have an episode of transient global amnesia, with people 50 years of age and older at higher risk.
The specific cause of TGA is not known, but some experts believe it stems from a “temporary dysfunction in the brain’s hippocampus — the area responsible for creating new memories,” Couric shared.
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“Doctors believe this is driven by brief interruptions in blood or oxygen flow, or microscopic spasm in the blood vessels.”
Episodes could potentially be triggered by intense physical exertion, emotional distress, extreme temperature changes or migraines, experts say.
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Approximately 15% of patients will have a recurrence 10 years later.
“Why did this happen to me? Was the altitude an issue? Was I dehydrated? Tired? Stressed? The literature doesn’t seem to indicate that these are contributing factors, but the cause seems to be as mysterious as the brain itself,” Couric wrote.
Anyone who experiences sudden memory loss, confusion, difficulty speaking, weakness, numbness, vision changes, severe headache or other stroke-like symptoms should seek immediate medical attention or call 911, doctors advise. (iStock)
“All I know is that those hours will be forever lost. Someone described it as my brain failing to hit the ‘record button.’”
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“While this was a freaky occurrence, it could have been much more serious. So ultimately, I’m relieved — even though several hours of a Saturday in June will always be missing for me.”
Anyone who experiences sudden memory loss, confusion, difficulty speaking, weakness, numbness, vision changes, severe headache or other stroke-like symptoms should seek immediate medical attention or call 911, doctors advise.
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Older adults identified as “super movers” are about half as likely to develop cognitive impairment than their peers.
That’s according to a recent study led by Stony Brook Medicine in New York, which evaluated the cognitive function of 4,000 adults 80 and over who participated in multiple aging and longevity studies over several years.
Among this group, 6% to 10% were classified as super movers, which means they walk at a much faster pace than others of the same age and gender — at speeds comparable to people three decades younger.
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The super movers were found to have about half the risk of cognitive decline compared to seniors with typical gait speed.
The findings were published in the journal Neurology on June 16.
Older adults identified as “super movers” are about half as likely to develop cognitive impairment than their peers. (iStock)
“The study reinforces that mobility and brain health are closely connected,” lead study author Dr. Joe Verghese, MD, neurologist at Stony Brook Medicine, told Fox News Digital. “This suggests that preserving mobility may be an important marker of healthy brain aging and resilience.”
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The most intriguing finding, according to Verghese, was that super movers maintained cognitive function despite having similar dementia-related brain changes as their peers.
In postmortem brain analysis, there was no difference in dementia-related pathologies between the super movers and the slower walkers, the study stated.
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“This suggests they may possess resilience mechanisms that help preserve brain function even in the presence of age-related changes,” he said. “Understanding these resilience factors could lead to new strategies for promoting healthy brain aging.”
As the study was observational, there were some limitations, and it does not prove that walking faster prevents dementia, the researchers noted.
Super movers were found to have about half the risk of cognitive decline compared to seniors with typical gait speed. (iStock)
“Other factors, such as cardiovascular health, physical fitness or genetics, may also contribute to both faster walking and better cognitive outcomes,” Verghese said.
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This study adds to growing evidence that what’s good for the heart and muscles also benefits the brain, he noted, adding that “staying physically active remains one of the most effective, evidence-based ways to support healthy aging.”
“Walking speed is best viewed as a marker of overall health, not a treatment.”
“The broader message is that physical activity is important at any age,” Verghese said. “Walking is an easy step-up point because you don’t need any special equipment. You can do it inside or outdoors, and you can do it on a regular basis. You can walk with a dog, you can walk with a friend.”
Any activity is beneficial if it’s done regularly and with the right intensity, he added.
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Rather than just trying to walk faster, the neurologist recommends that seniors focus on maintaining mobility through regular physical activity, strength training, balance exercises and good cardiovascular health.
“Walking speed is best viewed as a marker of overall health, not a treatment,” Verghese noted.
Major public health guidelines from the CDC and U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week, such as brisk walking.
Major public health guidelines from the CDC and U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week, such as brisk walking. (iStock)
This can be achieved by walking 30 minutes a day, five days a week, or about 20 to 25 minutes most days. Another option is to engage in shorter sessions that add up over the day.
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“You have to do it within your health limitations and medical conditions,” Verghese advised. “So if there are any medical concerns, I would get your physician to clear you before starting exercise.” The good thing about walking, he added, is that you can start at a slow pace and then gradually build up to a brisker pace.
“And then adding on strength and balance training, whatever age you are, I think is also important.”
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