Preventing Falls By Older Adults Is Topic Of 'Grand Rounds' Online Broadcast

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Article Date: 20 Sep 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Each year, one in three Americans age 65 and older fall, and 30 percent of them suffer injuries requiring medical attention.

How the public health community is responding to this growing health issue is the subject of an online broadcast on Sept. 25, titled "Help older adults live better, longer: prevent falls and traumatic brain injuries."

The program, a collaboration between the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is part of the series Public Health Grand Rounds.

The one-hour, free Internet program will air at 2 p.m. and be archived on the Web site http://www.publichealthgrandrounds.unc.edu.

"The fact is that the baby boomer bubble is upon us, and as this group ages, injuries from falls will increase demands on our already stretched health-care system," said program host Edward L. Baker, M.D., director of the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, the service and outreach arm of the UNC School of Public Health.

Baker said the program features two falls prevention programs in Wisconsin and shows processes and public health interventions that physicians, physical therapists, institutional and personal caregivers, and local public health departments can apply anywhere.

Joining Baker to discuss the impact of fall injuries and intervention strategies will be Stephanie Bailey, M.D., chief of public health practice at CDC; William L. Roper, M.D., dean of the UNC School of Medicine and CEO of UNC Health Care; Lynn Beattie, vice president of the Injury Prevention Center for Healthy Aging of the National Council on Aging; Stephen Hargarten, M.D., director of the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin; and Judy Stevens, Ph.D., epidemiologist with the division of unintentional injury prevention at the CDC.

The program is free, but online registration is requested. Currently viewers are registered from all 50 states and eight foreign countries.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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