The information comes from a recent study of Boston-area residents over age 70, which found that those who sometimes neglected their medications experienced a 50 percent increased rate of falls compared with those who did not.
Falls are a leading cause of injuries that can result in the need for costly care states Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.
Researchers used data from a total of 246 senior men and 408 senior women with an average age of 78. Between 2005 and 2008, 376 individuals in this group reported a total of 1,052 falls.
A participant was characterized as having low medication adherence if he or she answered yes to any of the following questions: Do you ever forget to take your medications? Are you careless at times about taking your medications?
Those in the low-adherence group experienced falls at an annual rate of 1.5 times that of the high adherence group. This association persisted after adjusting for other variables, including age, sex, cognitive function, and total number of medications.
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