Reprints and permission:

Falls in older people are common, and their impact can be devastating, causing significant morbidity and mortality. It is an important public health concern due to the amount of hospitalizations, deterioration, premature nursing home admissions, and the great expenditure to health care and social services.1 It has been estimated that the annual direct and indirect cost of fall injuries will reach $54.9 billion by 2020 without accounting for inflation.2 Twenty-eight per-cent to 35 % of adults older than 65 years of age sustain at least one fall,3,4 and the incidence increases to 32 % to 42% in adults older than 75 years of age.5,6 It is also known that adults who have a history of falling have a two-thirds chance of falling over the next year.7 Of those who fall, 20 % to 30 % suffer moderate to severe injuries, which will increase their chance of an early death.8 Falls constitute two thirds of the deaths from unintentional injuries, which is the fifth leading cause of death in older adults.9 Numerous studies have identified over 400 potential risk factors for falling, highlighting the multifaceted nature of this problem.10 The Effective Health Care Bulletin has classified risks into 5 categories: environmental, medication, changes related to aging, nutritional, and amount of exercise.11 It has been hypothesized that cardiovascular disorders are responsible for up to 77 % of patients presenting with a fall related to unexplained loss of consciousness.12 This is of great impor-tance, given the fact that adults with an intrinsic cardiac cause have a greater mortality after falling when compared to those without a cardiac cause.13 In the present study, we sought to evaluate the prevalence of cardiovascular risk assessment and cardiovascular abnormalities in patients presenting with nonaccidental falls at the University of Utah hospital and its affiliated clinics. 405212 JPCXXX10.1177/2150131911405212Daccar ett et al.Journal of Primary Care & Community Healt