Health Risks After a Certain Age
There’s not a particular birthday when daily activities start becoming dangerous. However, sometime between age 70 and age 80, activities that were once simply a part of daily life, such as showering, cooking, or even getting the mail, become dangerous. The most frightening aspect of these changes is that they’re often not recognized until it’s too late.
Not only do seniors not realize when things are getting difficult or dangerous for them, but relatives who don’t see seniors often may also not be in tune to the changes that signal someone needs assistance with activities they’ve always completed on their own.
Understanding which activities become dangerous and why can help those who interact with seniors intervene before disaster strikes.
Table of Contents
Bathing is the Most Dangerous Activity for Seniors
Bathrooms are the most common place for a senior to fall. Showering is also an activity that has many factors working against a person in terms of their ability to stay upright and coordinated. There are slippery surfaces, hard objects to bump into, climbing in and out of tubs or standing areas, and finally standing on one leg while drying.
This is also compounded by the fact that showering or bathing is an extremely private activity. People are less willing to ask for help with this than they are with others, making it more difficult for them to ask for help in the areas where it may have become crucial for them to do so. A fall in the bathroom can lead to a broken hip or head injury that changes everything about a person’s life.
Seniors with lessened sensation may not feel when water is too hot and end up scalded. Seniors with memory issues may leave the water running. Seniors who are too tired from standing (and possibly even from the heat) may pass out even after showering.
Professionals can be a big help here. All American Services, for instance, have caregivers who have been specially trained to assist while still saving dignity in this area of people’s daily activities.
Cooking Becomes Dangerous
Cooking also has several factors that make the activity dangerous as people get older. There are items like stoves to contend with. There are also sharp knives and heavy pots to lift. It’s an activity that requires a lot of standing. Cooking also requires mental juggling while preparing one (or sometimes multiple) meals at a time.
Seniors who have memory issues may forget to turn off the stove. Seniors who have a diminished sense of smell may not smell gas leaking or food that is burning. Reduced coordination makes seniors more likely to cut themselves on knives. Reduced strength makes it so seniors may no longer be able to hold pots of heavy or hot food.
Some seniors give up cooking good meals, which leaves them open to malnutrition. Others still attempt to cook, but this ends up leading to burns, cuts, and even house fires from abandoned cooking.
Medication Administration
Taking medication seems like a simple task. However, it can become complicated if several different medications need to be taken at different times of day. Some medications need to be taken after food while others need to be taken before food. Some people need to take medications only once a day and some need to take them multiple times throughout the day.
Memory issues make it difficult to take medications sometimes as well. Did I take my pills this morning? It’s a question asked multiple times by the same senior every day. The consequences of taking too many pills can be fatal as can not taking them at all when they’re due.
Vision changes can also make it difficult to read small labels. Arthritis can make it challenging to open medication bottles. Confusing labels can make someone take the wrong pill.
Stairs Become An Obstacle
For seniors who live in multi-level dwellings, stairs become a major hazard. Going up stairs requires stamina and strength, which lessens with age. Going back down stairs requires balance, coordination, and vision; one misstep could send someone tumbling down an entire flight.
Some seniors stop using stairs altogether. Many do so by necessity, only using one floor of their home or dwelling (if they go outside at all). This leads to isolation, which is dangerous in its own right. Still, others who rely on stairs live on the precipice of danger daily.
The threat posed by stairs increases if something is being carried up or down. Plenty of people still utilize stairs in order to do laundry and carrying clothes up and down multiple flights of stairs increases risks.
Housekeeping Becomes Challenging
Housekeeping may seem like a task that doesn’t take as much activity as others, but it involves a lot. Vacuuming, dusting, cleaning up spills, cleaning up messes, and changing bedding all require a certain amount of movement, bending, and reaching. More importantly, they require the ability to actively clean for a certain period of time.
Climbing on a step stool to reach things gets dangerous for seniors. Moving around objects to clean behind them is also hazardous. Other forms of cleaning—carrying bags of trash to dumpsters or cans—can increase risks for older adults as well.
When someone can no longer keep their house clean, it creates dangers in the area they live in. Trash and clutter build up. Spills aren’t cleaned up and create slipping hazards. Maintenance issues arise that are not resolved. The home seniors live in for safety becomes unsafe because of this lack of ability.
Getting Help Before Something Happens
The important thing is recognizing when these activities become dangerous before something happens. It can be beneficial for family members to know what signs to look for in seniors. They should pay attention if someone has changed their eating habits if they once cooked for themselves or someone else. This is something that happens often with seniors who stop cooking: they stop cooking full meals or they begin skipping meals entirely.
Family members should also consider paying attention if they notice someone moving slowly whom they never used to move slowly before. Memory issues are sometimes also hard to ignore or at least should be.
Household Issues Signal Trouble
Household issues also signal something is going on with seniors. If a senior always has clutter in their home it is clean and tidy; it could indicate that they can no longer keep up with things they used to maintain regularly. The same is true with maintenance. Missed maintenance issues indicate someone can no longer take care of their home.
These kinds of conversations are difficult to have; as someone begins to flail in areas they used to excel it is hard for them to accept help. They don’t want it because it signals decline. However, it helps to get into these conversations before someone has fallen or burned themselves with something.
It also helps to have limited assistance versus full assistance as opposed to waiting until assistance is completely necessary. Oftentimes someone who accepts assistance with just one risky area can continue with many other areas of their daily life.
The goal is not to take over someone’s life but to make them safe while allowing them the independence they deserve as long as possible. When family members tackle these issues proactively seniors remain safer and healthier at home longer.