Circumstances of unintentional fall-related adult deaths: Utah, 2010-2020

Fall-related deaths have been on the rise nationwide. Our objective was to characterise the trend in unintentional fall-related adult deaths in Utah and evaluate the underlying and contributing causes associated with these deaths.

We used 2010-2020 Utah death certificate data and included all Utah deaths aged 18 and older with a fall listed on their death records as the underlying or contributing cause of death in the analysis.

From 2010 to 2020, the overall age-adjusted unintentional fall death rate increased 70% from 15.7 to 26.8 per 100 000 person-years, while the overall age-adjusted death rate increase was 12% at the time. On average, the group with falls as one of the contributing causes had 4.9 other contributing causes, while the group with falls as an underlying cause had 3.3; the two averages were statistically different. Incidence of death increased 60% (12.1-19.4 per 100 000) for falls classified as the underlying cause of death and 103% (3.6-7.3 per 100 000) for those with fall as a contributing cause. Coding for the type of fall became more specific with a 30% decrease in unspecified fall (International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision code W19) (5.9-4.1 per 100 000).

There was an increasing trend of unintentional fall-related adult deaths in Utah from 2010 to 2020. This increase is consistent with national trends. Our data supports there is more specific reporting of fall deaths, but better reporting alone cannot explain the uptrend. Furthermore, the deaths with falls as contributing causes increased the most, and these individuals have more comorbidities.