Reducing Fall Risk

Common Fall Risk Factors

Many times the risk of falling can be associated with growing older, but there are actually many factors that can impact a person’s likelihood of falling. Some common fall risk factors include:

• Balance issues
• Weak muscles, especially in the legs
• Lightheadedness or dizziness
• Joint pain
• Medical conditions like diabetes
• Foot pain

These risk factors related to your health can contribute to your risk of falling. You are more likely to experience a fall if you are experiencing one or more of these risk factors. Your physical therapist will be able to address these factors and more in their quest to help identify your particular risk factors and reduce your fall risk. 

Environmental Hazards

While personal risk factors are more likely to contribute to a fall, there are some environmental hazards that may be posing a risk for you to fall as well. Most of these factors are very easy to fix and can go a long way in ensuring that your home and environment are safe – especially if you are dealing with personal and medical risk factors.

• Improve the lighting inside and outside your environment
• Anchor your furniture to your walls
• Secure mats and rugs to your floors
• Wear supportive footwear
• Pick up clutter and loose cords

There are many falls that can be prevented by making these few small changes. It may not always be easy to identify what steps you take to make your home safer, but hopefully these small suggestions can be a step in the right direction in helping to ensure your safety. 

How Does Physical Therapy Reduce My Fall Risk

After doing all you can do to help ensure a safe environment, you still may be dealing with personal and medical factors that increase your fall risk – and that is where the professionals at Pick PT come in! With years of extensive experience, our physical therapists are ready and determined to increase your confidence and maximize your safety. We do that through different processes and individualized treatments designed to strengthen your body, muscles, and joints to help you fall and avoid injuring yourself in a fall as well.

• Tailored Exercise Plans: Physical therapists will address your concerns, your particular risk factors, and your limitations in order to determine the best course of action for your fortifying journey. A tailored exercise plan may look like balance exercises and weight shifting exercises to address and maximize the coordination of a person.

• Functional Movement Exercises: Posture and walking patterns may also impact your risk for falling so functional movement exercises may be incorporated to identify certain movement patterns and correct them.

• Basic Strength Training: Weak muscles can be the main cause of falling, so building up your muscles in some of the main areas of your body proves to be beneficial in reducing your fall risk. Your core and your legs tend to be the most responsible for keeping you upright as you walk throughout your life, so engaging in strength training that will build those muscles up can help you lower your risk of falling.
•  Measuring Gait Speed: Your gait speed is the time it takes you to walk a specific distance on a level surface. Our physical therapists can measure this and take you through the process of enhancing your gait speed to reduce your fall risk. 

There is no magic out there that will guarantee that you never experience a fall in your life, but physical therapy can be a beneficial step in preventing and lowering your overall risk of sustaining a fall. While it is not possible to completely prevent a fall, engaging in the steps offered by physical therapists will not only reduce the risk, but can help to improve your overall quality of life as well.