Healthnotes Newswire (May 31, 2001)—Elderly people who exercise at home with a trained nurse are less likely to suffer debilitating falls, according to two studies published earlier this year in the British Medical Journal.^{1 2}

Among those who participated in the first exercise program, falls were reduced by 46 percent. That program cost about $733 per fall prevented, but only $63 when the researchers took into account the hospitalization costs averted by fall prevention. The second program reduced falls by 30 percent at a cost of $617 for each fall prevented. Falls and hip fractures are common and costly sources of disability among the elderly, especially those with osteoporosis.