Study: Elderly Hospital Patients Who Walk More Are Not More Likely to Fall

According to a new study out of the University of Texas at Galveston, elderly hospital patients who fell while hospitalized did not walk around any more than patients who did not fall. This reinforces what many geriatricians warn - that keeping seniors immobile in the hopes of keeping them from falling can backfire.

The researchers equipped 35 elderly hospital patients with small electronic devices that counted the number of steps they took. While there was no statistical difference in the amount of walking between the groups, they did see that falls were associated with delirium and/or poor cognitive function. All of the recorded falls took place at night, with six out of 10 of them related to trips to the bathroom.  

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