Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Is the Village This Unsafe?

We just got our July UCO Reporter magazines. On page 11, George Franklin says in his Safety column that the number one health problem in Century Village is falling. I don’t doubt he is right, and it is good to be warned. But can his statistics be right? He says 30% of us will fall in the next year. Going by my own lack of surefootedness, I don’t doubt this is true. Assuming 12,000 residents in the Village (in season), this means 3600 will fall during the next year. Then, George says, of this 30% (the 3600), three out of every ten (again 30%) will die in the next year as a result of the fall. This would mean 1080 of our 12,000 residents, or 9% of the Village population, die every year from this specific cause. Is my math wrong or has George made a mistake in his percentages? If true, this is pretty scary.
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Your BLOGMEISTER replies:

Hi Lanny,
I believe that George has done his research, please see:

http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Aging/6-11-16-FallsHaveBecome.htm

Very scary indeed!

Dave Israel

3 comments:

Lanny Howe said...

I checked reference source and still can't find basis for saying 9% of our people die every year from falls. In a typical 26-unit association with, let's say, 36 occupants, this would be saying that 3.5 of your association neighbors die every year from this cause. Our elderly are passing away quickly enough, but not this quickly, I think—from ALL causes, let alone just falls. Am I wrong?

Randall said...

Why do you think they call the time of year that the seasonal residents begin to return, the "Fall"? Ugh...

don4060 said...

good one