Safer homes for Alzheimer's victims.

Memory loss, disorientation, night wandering, and tantrums - these have become the all-too-familiar signs of someone suffering the degenerative effects of Alzheimer's disease. Recently, however, falling has been added to the list.

According to research conducted at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, people, with Alzheimer's who live at home - even those who still are, relatively young and physically fit - are far more susceptible to falling than elderly people who do not have the disease. In many cases, all it takes is one serious injury from a fall to start the downward spiral toward death. There are two large contributors to the increase in falling in the Alzheimer's population, notes assistant professor of nursing Dorothy Booth. "The cognitive impairment caused by the disease has something to do with it, but home safety may also play a critical role."

In a yearlong study, Booth and two graduate nursing students followed 11 people afflicted with Alzheimer's who were living at home with a full-time caregiver. During that year, 36% of the patients fell at least once; one fell 10 times in a month.

"These patients don't know where their body is in space," Booth points out. "When you ask them to grasp an object, they may come in way below or above it. That's why pathway clutter, stairways, and poorly lighted areas are...