The Elderly Susceptible to Falling out of “bed”Accidents

- Elderly fracture, cerebral hemorrhage lead to serious injuries -

    People need to pay extra attention to the elderly falling accidents which can lead to serious injuries such as fracture, and cerebral hemorrhage which require expensive rehabilitation treatment. Given that all these accidents are preventable; it is crucial to provide accurate information for prevention education.

    Korea Consumer Agency (www.kca.go.kr) and one of Institutions that provide consumer injury information, Gachon University Gil Hospital, analyzed harmful cases to jointly announce consumer safety warning.

* Institutions that provide consumer injury information: 「FRAMEWORK ACT ON CONSUMERS」 Institutions that are responsible to hand in consumer injury information in pursuant to Article 52 and Article 39 (62 Hospitals, and F18 ire Station)

□ The elderly was most susceptible to fall from bed

    KCA analyzed 1,250 cases of the elderly falling accidents that are reported through Consumer Injury Surveillance System (CISS) during the recent three years (2013∼2015), and it turned out that the figure increased by more than 35% every year recording 294 cases in 2013, 402 cases in 2014, and 554 cases in 2015.

    Major factor that cause falling accidents was “bedroom furniture” 587 cases (47.0%), particularly “bed (581 cases, 99.0%)”. In case of “medical appliances (100 cases, 8.0%)”, there were 60 cases (60.0%) of people falling out from “medical bed” accounted

□ Serious Bodily Injury of the elderly, 3.5 times higher than other age group

    According to 376 cases that treatment period is identifiable, there were 49 cases (13.0%) of “serious bodily accidents that took more than a month to cure” which is 3.5 times more than the average serious injury cases (3.7%), and there were 2 death cases (0.5%) which amounts 10 times more than the average death rate (0.05%).

□ Most falling accidents accompanied by “Fracture”, and “cerebral hemorrhage”

    According to Gil Hospital of Gachon University, “Fracture (179 cases, 50.3%)” was the most frequent and this is because decreased osseous tissue due to osteoporosis, weakened resistance to fracture.

    In addition, the incidence rate of “cerebral concussion, and cerebral hemorrhage (71cases, 19.9%)” was one of the highest disease which brain damage has 4 times higher chances of death comparing to younger age group.

    Falling accidents of the elderly can lead to serious diseases and in worst case scenario, can lead to death. Thereby, it is crucial that family members of the elderly, the elderly themselves, and medical professions should be aware of prevention measures in advance.

    KCA and Gil Hospital of Gachon University strongly recommended that in households with the elderly, ▲ should be aware of falling accidents from a bed, ▲ use relatively low height bed, and ▲ be extra careful in the safety of the elderly such as installing safety handle.