Clinical case · Falls
Three falls in two months
A 79-year-old man has fallen three times, once lying on the floor for an hour. Work through a multifactorial falls assessment and decide what to change.
Intermediate 15 minNeeds clinical review
You will learn to
- Measure and interpret orthostatic blood pressure
- Identify fall-risk-increasing medicines and other modifiable risk factors
- Plan personalised, multidomain falls prevention
Presentation
Step 1 of 10A 79-year-old man is referred by his GP after his third fall in two months. At the last fall, at 3 a.m. while walking to the toilet, he could not get up and lay on the floor for about an hour until his wife woke. He has bruising to his hip and is now frightened of falling.
References
- Montero-Odasso M, van der Velde N, Martin FC, et al. World guidelines for falls prevention and management for older adults: a global initiative. Age Ageing. 2022;51(9):afac205. doi:10.1093/ageing/afac205 · PubMed 36178003
- Freeman R, Wieling W, Axelrod FB, et al. Consensus statement on the definition of orthostatic hypotension, neurally mediated syncope and the postural tachycardia syndrome. Clin Auton Res. 2011;21(2):69–72. doi:10.1007/s10286-011-0119-5 · PubMed 21431947
- Sherrington C, Fairhall NJ, Wallbank GK, et al. Exercise for preventing falls in older people living in the community. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019;1:CD012424. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD012424.pub2 · PubMed 30703272
- Seppala LJ, Petrovic M, Ryg J, et al. STOPPFall (Screening Tool of Older Persons Prescriptions in older adults with high fall risk): a Delphi study by the EuGMS Task and Finish Group on Fall-Risk-Increasing Drugs. Age Ageing. 2021;50(4):1189–1199. doi:10.1093/ageing/afaa249 · PubMed 33349863
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. STEADI — Assessment: Timed Up & Go (TUG). 2017. link
Last updated 2026-10-06.
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