Falls and COVID link found by Canadian doctors in spring 2020, strengthened by Loop evidence summary and more research

Posted Le 22 mars 2021

I was listening to a webinar today moderated by Andre Picard about "Reimagining Aging and Restoring Trust in the Wake of COVID-19" featuring Dr Nathan Stall and Dr Samir Sinha, of Toronto’s University Health Network.  Dr Stall mentioned the study he and Dr Sinha had done in spring 2020: “Typically Atypical: COVID-19 presenting as a fall in an older adult”, which identified falls (and balance) as atypical symptoms of COVID-19.  Falls were not, at that time, considered a symptom by most clinicians. I perked right up!


Somehow I had missed this news last year. But other researchers had not. An article by two Polish researchers Karolina Gawronska and Jacek Lorkowski, which came out recently "Falls as One of the Atypical Presentations of COVID-19 in Older Population" quotes the Canadian researchers, and does a broad literature search on the issue.
(both articles are available in full text at 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7267373/ and
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7900839/).


Our Loop Evidence Summary on Fall Prevention and COVID-19 reviews the impact of COVID-19 on risk factors contributing to fall-related injuries. It also summarizes current and emerging evidence on the effective planning and implementation of fall risk screening and assessment, fall care, fall rehabilitation and fall prevention initiatives in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Check it out: https://www.fallsloop.com/knowledge-products/1028/evidence-summary-fall-prevention-and-covid-19 and on the Fall Prevention Month website.


 


Marguerite Thomas has written popular articles on “Can COVID Make Us Fall Down?” published in the spring issues of:
-     Grey-Bruce Boomers http://greybruceboomers.com  on page 28
-     Huron-Perth Boomers http://huronperthboomers.com/  on page 22.


 



  • How has COVID-19 affected your fall prevention, risk assessment and fall rehabilitation practice?

  • Have you seen news, articles or resources in your area on links between falls and COVID?