Falls are common among older people.
According to the Yale researchers, about one-third of people 65 to 79 fall each year, while half of people 80 and older do. Gill and his collaborators studied 1,088 New Haven, Conn., residents who were at least 72 years old and lived in their own homes. At the beginning of the study and a year later, research nurses visited the homes to assess tripping and slipping hazards. For three years, participants kept daily diaries about falls and mailed the diaries to the project office monthly. Researchers made follow-up calls if the subjects reported falling or failed to mail in the diary.