Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why have death rates from accidental falls tripled?

usafacts.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 97 posts

Re: Why have death rates from accidental falls tripled?

#71

Post by buildsjets »

On January 1 1999 the USA switched from ICD-9 to ICD-10 for reporting mortality. (ICD-10 was not used for non-fatal clinical coding until 2015.) And as with all new things, morticians likely stuck with the more generic codes from ICD-9 and gradually started using some of the more specific iCD-10 codes over time. ICD-10 has 55,000 different codes compared to 17,000 codes available in ICD-9.

Could the gradual adoption of a more granular coding system in 1999 explain the increase in reported deaths due to falling that starts in 2000?

Re: Why have death rates from accidental falls tripled?

#73

Post by fallingfrog »

Someone wrote: post #57

I didn’t see this discussing whether falls have become more dangerous. How much of this is because the elderly fall more often and how much because, if they fall, they’re more likely to die? If the latter, it seems the elderly have gotten worse at falling, possibly because they fall less at young age, and aren’t as good in breaking their fall as before. And yes, it will be difficult to gather data on ”fell with littl…

The line between "falling" and "not falling" is extremely blurry for children- they will often do things like jump around, tuck and roll on the ground, hop like frogs and then scamper up the stairs on all fours and then flop down and roll around. Does that constitute a fall? Who knows. When i was young I remember reading on a form at a doctor's office "have you fallen in the last year?" And finding that an extremely humorous question. "Have you fallen in the last 5 minutes" would have been a more meaningful one but still very silly.

Even now at my age (40's) this fall I was crowd surfing at a car seat headrest concert in a black dress, and when I got to the front I was dropped in front of the stage, and then I stood up laughing and walked off to find my friends. Was that a fall? I don't know. Its just not really a question that makes sense when youre physically fit or young.

So yeah, i don't think that's it.

Re: Why have death rates from accidental falls tripled?

#74

Post by techjamie »

dexwiz wrote: post #66
hbn wrote: post #64

> Second, some of the increased deaths may be due to rising alcohol consumption. According to data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the percentage of people aged 65 or older who consume alcohol each month increased by 16% between 2002 and 2019. From 2002–2003 to 2021–2023, the share of this group who reported binge drinking in the past 30 days rose from 7.3% to 11.4% I've been hearing nothing…

Notice the age range is 65 or older. There is a large cohort of Boomers/GenX/Millenial drinkers who are aging up. The overall downtrend is that younger people are not starting to drink. But those who contributed to the initial rise are getting older.

I imagine that would be one positive effect of endless entertainment being ubiquitous- since people can zone out in front of a screen with any entertainment medium of their choosing, they are less likely to opt for alcohol.

Though interestingly, drunk driving fatalities are rising despite lowering alcohol consumption[1], even discounting the pandemic contriting large jumps up. So of the people that do drink, they're more likely to drive after doing so? It seems like an interesting topic to study.

[1] https://www.safehome.org/resources/dui-statistics/

Re: Why have death rates from accidental falls tripled?

#75

Post by kjkjadksj »

rossdavidh wrote: post #41
havblue wrote: post #8

Aside from alcohol and obesity, I don't see: 1. Cancer survivability. If people aren't dying from cancer they will be more likely to die from a fall in a weakened state. 2. Two level homes are a higher percentage of new construction and people are more able to afford it when they're older. Edit: okay they did mention fewer deaths from other causes such as cancer and heart disease.

Fewer small (one-level) homes is an excellent point. Also a lot of old people used to live in trailer homes or mobile homes, which are also one-level.

The stairs are probably your least likely place to fall. You have a railing. Getting out of the shower or slipping in the kitchen and catching the counter on the way down however…

Re: Why have death rates from accidental falls tripled?

#76

Post by Zak »

bell-cot wrote: post #61
Aboutplants wrote: post #22

Now graph this against the rise of mobile devices…

Looking at the article's graphs - both the deaths and the increase in deaths are very strongly skewed toward the highest age brackets. Deaths fell in the 34-and-under brackets. Are 85+ folks falling more (or worse), because they're paying more attention to their phones than to their feet? Or maybe the fatal falls are caused by collisions with nose-in-phone kids?

Fall fatalities for people 25-34 are likely related to working at height or recreational climbing, during which the victim is less likely to be using electronic devices.

Re: Why have death rates from accidental falls tripled?

#77

Post by tempsaasexample »

PurpleRamen wrote: post #26
blakesterz wrote: post #4

I guess the hypothesis makes sense. They say it's probably Drugs, Alcohol, Obesity and Fourth, some of the increase may be due to changes in reporting. As people have become more aware of the danger of falls, falls that used to not be recorded as a cause of death may increasingly be reported as a cause.

I'm curious how many deadly falls are the result of an ilness. Would having an heart attack in an unlucky moment skew the statistics? I guess they normally would not research the cause of death deeper if there is an obvious reason.

A good friend recently lost her dad to a fall in his back yard. Technically it was a second or third stroke in the past few years, but this time he also fell backwards onto a cement stepping stone in his backyard. So you're correct that these things can often be related. Another friend has never had a fainting spell in his life. But three years ago, fainted luckily forward I guess, and knocked out a tooth.

Re: Why have death rates from accidental falls tripled?

#78

Post by dexwiz »

techjamie wrote: post #74
dexwiz wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notice the age range is 65 or older. There is a large cohort of Boomers/GenX/Millenial drinkers who are aging up. The overall downtrend is that younger people are not starting to drink. But those who contributed to the initial rise are getting older.

I imagine that would be one positive effect of endless entertainment being ubiquitous- since people can zone out in front of a screen with any entertainment medium of their choosing, they are less likely to opt for alcohol. Though interestingly, drunk driving fatalities are rising despite lowering alcohol consumption[1], even discounting the pandemic contriting large jumps up. So of the people that do drink, they're…

Anecdotally the drinking culture that existed for me in my youth has completely disappeared. House parties, a staple of my college years, are nonexistent. Talking to recent grads from the same school, their social life looks very different.

I think this is connected to social media but in a different way. Young people are very aware that any deviant behavior will be recorded and posted. Also they are deathly afraid of being "cringe."

Re: Why have death rates from accidental falls tripled?

#80

Post by tempsaasexample »

As a side note, I've gotten my dad into dirtbiking for the first time at 65.

He has padded shorts, and padding pants, and a padded shirt. He then wears my track leathers, even though he's on dirt. He's fallen a few times and he agrees you feel like superman.

He's started joking that if he makes it to 75, he's going to start wearing the padded shorts and shirt as regular daily wear.

Post reply on HN