A bad fall can change an older adult’s life in an instant.
Beyond the physical injury, a fall can stop you from doing activities you love, reduce your social interactions, and leave you living with a constant fear of falling again.
These effects compound if you don’t know why you fell. If you tripped over a loose rug, you can remove the rug. But if there’s no explanation for your fall, how can you feel sure it won’t happen again? When older adults go to the emergency department because of a fall, a quarter of them don’t know why they fell.
To help, the RIA is creating a leading-edge Falls and Syncope Research Lab, the first in Canada devoted to studying the causes and prevention of unexplained falls and fainting (syncope). A generous $200,000 gift from The Mitchell and Kathryn Baran Family Foundation is launching the initiation phase, which will lay the foundation for the lab’s future full-scale work.
Led by Dr. Richard Hughson, Schlegel Research Chair in Vascular Aging and Brain Health, the Falls and Syncope Research Lab will generate an unprecedented body of research evidence to change our understanding of unexplained falls.
When older adults visit the emergency department after a fall, one-quarter of them have no explanation for how they fell. If researchers can learn more about what causes these falls, we can devise ways to prevent them.
Falls in older adults are a complex problem, and the RIA is putting the full force of its multidisciplinary team behind the urgent need to reduce them. Older adults can fall for many reasons, and our roster of experts in different fields are bringing their diverse skills and knowledge to the table, each complementing the others’ work to find and share practical solutions.
Dr. Hughson’s expertise is in how blood flows through the body and to the brain, and how that may change as we age. Some of these unexplained falls may have cardiovascular causes. In Phase 1 of the lab, thanks to The Mitchell and Kathryn Baran Family Foundation, Dr. Hughson will use leading-edge technology to uncover key cardiovascular mechanisms and pinpoint the most relevant risk factors and physiological changes. When Phase 1 ends, the RIA will have refined research priorities and identified key research projects to develop in the next phase.
The knowledge we gain from this leading program of research will allow healthcare providers to better identify people who are at risk of a fall from cardiovascular causes – before the fall happens – and offer better strategies to keep them safe from falling. It can also inform system-level change, suggesting new models for risk screening, prevention, and treatment.
With new ways to prevent falls from cardiovascular causes and to provide the best medical care for those who have experienced a fall, more people can stay well and independent as they age. We are grateful to The Mitchell and Kathryn Baran Family Foundation for making this possible.