(bright music) - [Narrator] NPT REPORTS: Aging Matters.

(dramatic music) - Had you spoken to your doctor before about the fear of falling?

Your previous doctor?

- Oh, no.

- Less than half of older adults, who have had a fall, have the topic of falls brought up during a doctor's appointment, but doctors are a good influence on older adults and they should be bringing up falls by asking some simple questions, you know, has the older adult fallen in the last 30 days, do they feel unsteady on their feet, and do they fear falling?

So, just a yes to one of those three questions should take action.

You know, we should do a screen or an assessment to identify what those risks are for falls.

- Were you dizzy at all or anything like that?

- No.

- Just the presence of certain chronic conditions can increase their risk for falling.

So, diabetes, chronic pain, arthritis, heart disease put them at risk and those are pretty common conditions among older adults.

Medications also are a major risk factor for falls.

- Let's talk about your medicine list really quickly.

- We recommend that all older adults keep an up-to-date medication list of all the medications they're taking: prescription, over the counter, any supplements that they may have purchased and use it on a regular basis.

Keep that on one list with the name of the doctor who's prescribed the medication, the dose of the medication, the reason they're taking that medication, and that list should be shared with all physicians that are seen by older adults because as I've mentioned before older adults see multiple physicians due to multiple chronic conditions and the doctors don't talk to each other.

So, this is a way to ensure that each physician understands the medications that others are prescribing.

(pills falling) Falls truly are not a normal part of aging.

We know what the risk factors are for falls and when we educate older adults about what their risks are, and provide them with strategies to reduce those risks, then we can prevent those falls from happening.

(bright music ends)