Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Growing older raises the risk of developing cancer. Growing older also raises the risk of falling. Every 17 seconds, an older person falls and visits the emergency department. Falling can have serious effects. These may include broken hips, serious bruising, head injury, and having to move to a nursing home. Cancer itself and some cancer treatments can cause people to fall. However, we do not know very much about how these falls occur, and what happens to cancer treatment when people with cancer fall. My study found out how and where falls occur, and what happens to older adults with cancer when they fall. I looked at whether and how cancer treatment is stopped when people fall and if they are injured when they fall. If we understand what happens to older adults with cancer when they fall and are injured, we can teach them and their caregivers what they can do to fall less. The results will help us work out how to organize and plan care and also tell us about what kinds of support older adults with cancer need. We want to make sure that falls do not affect older adults with cancer badly and that older adults do not have to stop their cancer treatment. Having this information will help us care better for older adults with cancer so that their health and wellbeing are improved.