Doctors at National Taiwan University Hospital yesterday called for better care and safeguards against injuries from falls among the elderly as the nation ages.
Li Jia-ming (黎家銘), a doctor at the hospital’s Beihu branch, said that more than 70 percent of the nation’s elderly suffer injuries from falls, and that 80 percent of injury-related hospital stays for those aged 65 and above were the result of falls.
“Taiwan is an aging society, as is the rest of the world. The percentage of elderly people exceeds that of the youth by 7 percent, making geriatric care more important than ever,” Beihu branch president Yang Pei-ming (楊培銘) told a press conference yesterday.
The hospital conducted a survey from last October to May of 676 people aged 65 and above in Taipei City’s Wanhua District (萬華). Of the respondents, 159 or 23.5 percent had experienced a fall in the past year with some suffering multiple falls, bringing the total number of falls to 197.
Fractures
Surprisingly, most falls occurred on level ground, Li said.
“One to 2 percent of the elderly who experienced a fall fractured their hipbone,” he said.
As a result of the fall, more than half were unable to “sufficiently take care of themselves, making correct care and supervision vital,” he said
Some doctors dismiss falls as an “inevitable part of aging,” said Han Te-sheng (韓德生), another doctor, resulting in improper or no treatment at all.
He said that there were certain steps that could be taken to decrease the risk of falls.
Creating a safe environment, such as clearing the floor of electrical cords and securing carpets, can help prevent falls, he said.
Han also suggested regular exercise to help the elderly strengthen their sense of stability and balance.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
RSS