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Falls as a Geriatric Syndrome: Mechanisms and Risk Identification

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Osteoporosis in Older Persons

Abstract

This quote from the late Bernard Isaacs, now four decades after being written, still portrays the crude consequence an older adult may experience after a single fall [1]. Falls, as a geriatric syndrome, certainly affect independent movement and mobility in older adults. Despite the enormous efforts of researchers and clinicians to comprehend the complexity of falls, there is still a significant gap in our complete understanding of this challenging syndrome. The aim of this chapter is to reduce this gap, address new areas of knowledge, including the role of certain aspect of cognition in falls mechanisms, and provide a rationale for the integration of a falls and fractures risk assessment into research on the emerging problem of osteoporosis in older population.

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Acknowledgement

I am indebted to Anam Islam, and Brittany Barnes, Research Coordinators at the “Gait and Brain Lab”, Division of Geriatric Medicine at St. Joseph’s Health Care, London, ON, Canada, for her endless assistance in the preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Manuel M. Montero-Odasso MD, PhD, AGSF, FRCPC

  2. Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada

    Manuel M. Montero-Odasso MD, PhD, AGSF, FRCPC

  3. Gait and Brain Lab, St. Joseph’s Health Care & Parkwood Institute, London, ON, Canada

    Manuel M. Montero-Odasso MD, PhD, AGSF, FRCPC

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  1. Manuel M. Montero-Odasso MD, PhD, AGSF, FRCPC
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Correspondence to Manuel M. Montero-Odasso MD, PhD, AGSF, FRCPC .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science, The University of Melbourne and Western Health, Saint Albans, Victoria, Australia

    Gustavo Duque

  2. Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Douglas P. Kiel

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Montero-Odasso, M.M. (2016). Falls as a Geriatric Syndrome: Mechanisms and Risk Identification. In: Duque, G., Kiel, D. (eds) Osteoporosis in Older Persons. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25976-5_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25976-5_10

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