Falls and falls prevention interventions for people living with mild cognitive impairment

It is well known that one in three older people fall each year. Older people receiving home care services fall twice as often as those the same age not receiving services and people living with dementia fall more frequently than those without a cognitive impairment. However, little is known about people living with mild cognitive impairment, their falls prevalence, risk factors for falling and interventions that have been found effective for reducing falls. In this presentation I will provide an overview of the current research on falls for people living with mild cognitive impairment, the physical activity and sedentary behaviour of a cohort of people living with mild cognitive impairment and discuss recruitment of people with mild cognitive impairment into a falls prevention trial

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About the presenter

Associate Professor Elissa Burton

Elissa Burton is an Accredited Sports Scientist (Level 2) and an Associate Professor at Curtin University in Western Australia. Elissa’s research focuses on helping older adults to live independently at home for as long as they choose, through healthy living strategies. Much of Elissa’s work has been with older adults who receive home care services, reablement or restorative care, promoting physical activity, preventing falls, and encouraging healthy older adults to participate more in strength and balance training. She is a current NHMRC Investigator Grant holder and her project is working with people living with mild cognitive impairment and investigating the effectiveness of a fall prevention intervention. She is the Co-Domain Lead for the Dementia and Ageing Domain at Curtin University’s enAble Institute and a Fellow of the Australasian Association of Gerontology (AAG).