Older Americans With Dementia Are More Likely to Suffer a Debilitating Fall. Targeted Interventions Could Help.

In an aging country, understanding fall risk and supporting caregivers with evidence-based strategies to mitigate it are increasingly urgent. Falls are the leading cause of injury for older Americans, with more than one in four adults ages 65 and older falling each year. For those with dementia, the risk of falling—and of serious consequences like […]

In an aging country, understanding fall risk and supporting caregivers with evidence-based strategies to mitigate it are increasingly urgent.

Senior woman climbing staircase with difficulty.

Falls are the leading cause of injury for older Americans, with more than one in four adults ages 65 and older falling each year. For those with dementia, the risk of falling—and of serious consequences like fractures, hospitalizations, and decline, and placement in a nursing home—is even higher.

New research funded by the National Institute on Aging explores the relationship between dementia and falls among older adults who live in communities, as opposed to in institutionalized settings like nursing homes or assisted living facilities. Experts call for tailored strategies like better caregiver education and coordination between caregivers and health care providers to prevent falls among this vulnerable population.

The U.S. population is aging rapidly, and the number of dementia cases continues to rise. More Americans are also opting to age in place—or live at home as long as possible. In this context, understanding fall risk and supporting caregivers with evidence-based strategies to mitigate it are increasingly urgent, research suggests.

Toshiko Kaneda (April 2025). Older Americans With Dementia Are More Likely to Suffer a Debilitating Fall. Targeted Interventions Could Help. Population Reference Bureau.

In the United States, over 24 million people provide unpaid care for older adults—a 32% increase from a decade ago

Nurse or home caregiver and senior woman holding hands at home.

As the large Baby Boom generation enters advanced ages, more family members and other unpaid helpers are stepping in as caregivers. In just over a decade, the number of family caregivers regularly assisting older adults with daily activities at home grew by 32%, increasing from 18.2 million to 24.1 million between 2011 and 2022.

While the caregiving cadre has grown, who’s getting care has also changed. Older Americans receiving family care are younger, better educated, and less likely to have dementia than they were in 2011, report Jennifer L. Wolff of Johns Hopkins University, independent consultant Jennifer C. Cornman, and Vicki A. Freedman of the University of Michigan.

The increase in family caregiving partly reflects the rising share of older adults with multiple chronic conditions, such as heart disease, hypertension, stroke, and cancer. And while the share of older adults with dementia has declined, unpaid caregivers average twice as many hours each week caring for people with dementia than without dementia (about 31 hours versus 14), Wolff and team found (see Figure 1).

In addition, a new study estimates that the number of new dementia cases will double over the next 40 years as the population ages—setting the stage for more demands on dementia caregivers and more changes to the caregiving landscape.

“Understanding the changing composition and experiences of family caregiving has never been more important, but it is challenging to assess,” the researchers write. “[It] requires consistent measurement for well-characterized, generalizable samples of people who receive and provide help.”

The nationally representative National Study of Caregiving and the National Health and Aging Trends Study offer important insights. The two studies provide a snapshot of the family caregivers that help Americans ages 65+ who live in the community (i.e., at home or with a relative) or in a residential care setting other than a skilled nursing facility, such as an assisted or independent living facility, a personal care home, or a continuing care retirement community.

Family caregivers include relatives and unpaid helpers who assist with personal care tasks like bathing and dressing; mobility tasks like getting out of bed and getting around the house; and household activities such as laundry, food preparation, shopping, and managing money.

Mark Mather & Paola Scommegna (March 2025). Fact Sheet: Trends in Family Care for Older Americans. Population Reference Bureau.

Brain changes, weight loss, and even infection history could help pinpoint who might be at risk

A senior black man is sitting in his doctor's office and listening as the doctor shows him something on a digital tablet.

Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias are characterized by progressive cognitive decline, and with an aging population, the number of older Americans with dementia is expected to rise dramatically in coming years. But dementia is not an inevitable part of aging.

New studies funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) identify early warning signs of cognitive decline and key factors that contribute to dementia risk. Early diagnosis allows access to treatments that can delay the onset or slow the development of dementia, improving the health and well-being of dementia patients and their caregivers and reducing health care costs.

Paola Scommegna, Mark Mather, Dan Vahaba (January 2025). New Studies Identify Early Warning Signs of Dementia. Population Reference Bureau.

Phoebe Imms et al., “Neuroanatomical and Clinical Factors Predicting Future Cognitive Impairment,” GeroScience (2024).

Yuan S. Zhang and Virginia W. Chang, “Time Path of Weight Status Before and After Incident Dementia,” Journal of Aging and Health 36, no. 1–2 (2024): 98–109.

Leah S. Richmond-Rakerd et al., “Associations of Hospital-Treated Infections With Subsequent Dementia: Nationwide 30-Year Analysis,” Nature Aging 4, no. 6 (2024): 783–90.

Aaron Reuben et al., “Dementia, Dementia’s Risk Factors and Premorbid Brain Structure Are Concentrated in Disadvantaged Areas: National Register and Birth-Cohort Geographic Analyses,” Alzheimer’s & Dementia 20, no. 5 (2024): 3167–78.

Brian Downer et al., “Dual-Language Use and Cognitive Function Among Mexican Americans Aged 65 and Older,” Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease 99, no. 3 (2024): 1105–15.

Colleen Heflin was appointed to a three-year term on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT).

Colleen Heflin recently accepted a 4 year appointment to the Population Association of America (PAA) Government and Public Affairs Committee (GPAC) beginning January 1, 2025. GPAC is a joint venture between PAA and the Association of Population Centers (APC) focused on educating policymakers about population research outcomes and the federal agencies that support population research.

Merril Silverstein was recognized along with Woosang Hwang as the 2023 recipients of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) Olson Grant: Bridging Research, Theory, and Practice.

Research Briefs

Scott Landes, Bonnielin K. Swenor, and Jean P. Hall. 2024. It is Time to Stop Using the Washington Group Questions to Measure Disability in U.S. Federal Surveys. Lerner Center Population Health Research Brief #121.

Ali Jones and Marc A. Garcia. 2024. What Factors Contribute to Racial Disparities in Asthma Prevalence in the United States? Lerner Center Population Health Research Brief #122.

CAPS Affiliate Publications

Cheryl Elman, Angela M. O’Rand, and Andrew S. London. 2024. Parity and Post-Reproductive Mortality among U.S. Black and White Women: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study. PLoS ONE 19(9): e0310629.

Xue Zhang, Shannon M. Monnat. 2024. Watchful, skeptics, and system distrusters: Characteristics associated with different types of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among U.S. working-age adults. Vaccine, 42(24): 126080.

Scott D. Landes & Bonnielin K. Swenor. 2024. A year of disability health equity milestones: Why disability data is still needed. Disability and Health Journal. Ahead of Print.

Shelbie G Turner, Irina Mindlis, M Carrington Reid, Karl A Pillemer. 2024. Caregiving challenges from persistent pain among family caregivers to people with dementia. The Gerontologist, 65(2): gnae164.

Merril Silverstein, Christel Gärtner, and Maria T. Brown (editors). 2024. Religious Change and Continuity Across Generations: Passing on Faith in Families of Six European and North American Nations. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Rachel Margolis , Mara Getz Sheftel, Haowei Wang, Raeven Faye Chandler, Lauren Newmyer, and Ashton M. Verdery. 2024. Older Adults’ Descendants and Family Networks in the Context of Global Educational Expansion. Population and Development Review. Ahead of Print.

The Advances in Social Genomics Conference Series (TAGC)
May 14-16, 2025
UW-Madison
Deadline for submissions: March 7, 2025

With support from the National Institute of Aging, the La Follette School for Public Affairs and Initiative in Social Genomics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is hosting The Advances in Social Genomics Conference Series (TAGC). Researchers from any of the biological or social sciences are encouraged to participate.

The goal of this conference is to showcase scholarship that considers biodemographic factors across the life course that shape health and aging processes. The conference this year will have a focus on biological aging, but we welcome all work in social genomics, broadly construed.

To be considered for this conference, please submit a complete paper, a working draft, or an extended abstract (including data description, methods, and preliminary results) as a .pdf file by March 7, 2025. There is no conference registration fee. Funding is available for travel/accommodations of selected papers. More information and updates on the event can be found on the TAGC website.

Interested in attending only? Sign up now.

The La Follette School is the host of the Initiative in Social Genomics, one of the world’s largest and most innovative collaboratives in the emerging field of social genomics which integrates social science and genetic research to study how genes are linked with human behavior and socio-economic outcomes, how genes and environments interact, and how social conditions can influence humans all the way down to the molecular level.

Data Intensive Research Conference

2025 Theme: Understanding Health and Population Dynamics through Big Microdata
Conference: August 6-7 (Minneapolis & Online)
Pre-Conference Workshop: August 4-5 (Minneapolis)

Abstract submissions are due January 31

We welcome submissions that leverage the growing volume of full count census data to operationalize historical and present-day contexts: linking persons, families, or communities to examine trajectories; and elucidating experiences of small demographic groups that often cannot be adequately studied using other data sources. We are enthusiastic to present a program that highlights the utility of these big microdata sources for examinations of health and population dynamics. Review the call for proposals and submit an abstract. Travel support is available to attend the conference.

Workshop applications are now open

Ahead of the conference, IPUMS and NDIRA will host a two-day, intensive workshop, which will familiarize participants with full count census data from IPUMS, including linked census data from the IPUMS Multigenerational Longitudinal Panel (MLP). The workshop will also cover using full count census data with other data sources, geographic variables, as well as restricted versions of the data and restricted linkages to other data sources. The workshop is targeted towards scholars who have worked with quantitative data, but are relatively new to using linked full count census data from IPUMS; this includes graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, early career faculty, or experienced scholars developing a new line of research. The workshop is free and travel support is available, but space is limited. Applications are due April 15.

China’s population is aging and companies and services are adapting to serve the hundreds of millions of people over the age of 60. Merril Silverstein has studied how infrastructure development is increasingly geared towards an older society in China, telling NPR, “Those in more developed villages have less aging anxiety about whether their needs will be met, whether they’ll be, you know, happy or not as they get older.”