Falls Replace Car Crashes as Leading Cause of Spinal Cord Injuries

A new study by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has shown that falls have replaced car crashes as the major cause of spinal injuries in older adults.

Symptoms of spinal cord trauma can range from numbness, weakness, loss of bladder control to paralysis. The latest study found that incidence of spinal cord injuries have risen substantially in adults over 65 years of age.

"We have demonstrated how costly traumatic spinal cord injury is and how lethal and disabling it can be among older people," said Shalini Selvarajah,., a postdoctoral surgical research fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "It's an area that is ripe for prevention."

The study was based on data from 43,137 adults who were treated for spinal cord injuries in the United States between 2007 and 2009. Researchers found that for people belonging to age group 18 to 64, spinal cord injury rate was 52.3 per million in 2007 to 49.9 per million in 2009. However, these injuries increased in elderly; from 79.4 every million in 2007 to 87.7 in 2009.

Falls accounted for most of these spinal cord injuries with 41.5 percent. Car crashes followed a close second with 35.5 percent.

Among the elderly, fall related spinal injuries increased from 23.6 percent to 30 percent.

According to the researchers, old people with injuries to the spine are four times more likely to die during the treatment than younger victims.

Spinal cord injuries cost about $1.6 billion to the economy, researchers said. And, this is "just the first drop in a long-filling bucket," said Eric B. Schneider, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Center for Surgical Trials and Outcomes Research, according to a news release.

The study is published online in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries in older adults over 65 years of age. More than $28 billion is spent each year on treating injuries fall-related injuries in older adults in the U.S., according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.