MEDS MATTER –
Sept. 11, 2025 – For older adults, minor falls can pose major threats, as their risk of death after a fall has tripled in the U.S. over the last 30 years.
Some experts believe that certain medications — a category called fall risk-increasing drugs (FRIDs) — could be to blame. Dr. Thomas A. Farley, a Washington, D.C.–based public health expert, writes in the medical publication JAMA that lifestyle changes alone can’t explain the spike. “There is plenty of reason to believe that the surge in fall deaths may be tied to the soaring use of certain prescription drugs,” he writes.
Farley noted that these drugs are widely used among older adults, and their use has grown over the past few decades.
