Study Provides the Most Comprehensive Look to Date of Falls for U.S. Adults, including Frequency, Costs and Injury Types.
Working age adults account for more than two-thirds of the estimated 9.9 million annual fall-related injuries impacting U.S. adults according to Liberty Mutual’s latest research, highlighting the importance of companies actively protecting employees and the public from falls.
Liberty Mutual researchers quantified the number of annual fall-related injuries for U.S. adults based on 2008-2014 data from the National Health Interview Survey1. Surprisingly, fall injuries were almost equally divided across three age groups, with 32.3 percent occurring among older adults (ages 65+), 35.3 percent affecting middle-age adults (ages 45-65) and 32.3 percent affecting younger adults (ages 18-44). The research findings appear in PLOS ONE, a journal that reports original research from all disciplines of science and medicine.
“While there is considerable research on falls among older adults – those age 65 and up – less is known about fall-related injuries in middle-age and younger adults,” notes Santosh K. Verma, MD ScD, senior research scientist with Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety. “Our research provides the most comprehensive picture to date of the frequency of falls for U.S. adults.”
Beyond quantifying the number of annual fall-related injuries among U.S. adults – and their distribution by age group – the Liberty Mutual research produced two other sets of important findings:
- A summary by age group of the average and total lifetime cost of annual unintentional fall-related injuries resulting in death, hospitalization or emergency department visit
- A summary by age and gender of the annual average fall-related injury types
“By drawing attention to the magnitude of this major public health concern, the findings will help companies in their ongoing efforts to protect workers and the public from falls,” says Wayne Maynard, technical director, Liberty Mutual Risk Control Services. “Protecting these groups provides a host of benefits for employers, from keeping skilled employees on the job, to protecting tight margins from the costs associated with workers compensation and general liability claims.”
Liberty Mutual’s annual Workplace Safety Index has consistently cited falls among the top 10 causes of the most serious and costly nonfatal US work injuries. The present study provides a broader view of falls, examining those that occur both at work and outside of work.
Tips for how companies can protect employees and the public from falls – can be seen at http://passiontoprotect.libertymutualgroup.com/slips-trips-falls
About Liberty Mutual Insurance
Liberty Mutual Insurance helps people preserve and protect what they earn, build, own and cherish. Keeping this promise means we are there when our policyholders throughout the world need us most.
In business since 1912, and headquartered in Boston, Mass., today Liberty Mutual is a diversified insurer with operations in 30 countries and economies around the world. The company is the fifth largest property and casualty insurer in the U.S. based on 2015 direct written premium data as reported by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Liberty Mutual is ranked 73rd on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the U.S. based on 2015 revenue. As of December 31, 2015, the company had $121.7 billion in consolidated assets, $102.5 billion in consolidated liabilities, and $37.6 billion in annual consolidated revenue.
Liberty employs more than 50,000 people in over 800 offices throughout the world, and we offer a wide range of insurance products and services, including personal automobile, homeowners, accident & health, commercial automobile, general liability, property, surety, workers compensation, group disability, group life, specialty lines, reinsurance, individual life and annuity products.
You can learn more by visiting www.libertymutualinsurance.com.
- The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is the principal source of information on the health of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and is one of the major data collection programs of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
