An intriguing new study has revealed a disturbingly fatal facet to Montreal’s icy winters, most notably underscoring the alarming mortality rate among seniors due to falls, primarily in ill-maintained parking lots. This discovery unfurled in a study undertaken by Montreal Public Health, which called attention to unsuspecting hazards lurking in city’s parking areas.
In their research, the authors pinpointed falls as a critical reason that warrants an urgent rethink in the city’s snow clearance measures. Intimating the severity of this latent risk, they suggested a possibility of restructuring the city’s snow-clearing approach.
On a country-wide scale, the statistics for Canada are equally sobering. Falls head the list of causes leading to hospitalization and mortality stemming from injuries, specifically for those aged 65 and above.
In Montreal alone, the year 2020-2021 saw 6,600 fall-induced hospitalizations. A closer look at these figures revealed a striking proportion of older individuals impacted, with around 5,400 patients over 65, and an even more concerning count of 2,600 above 85.
A gender-based analysis of these events further exposes an unsettling trend. The incidence of falls in men appears to reach a plateau between the age of 60 and 89. In contrast, women grapple with a consistent, steady increase in the risk of falling, reaching its peak by the age of 89. This new research serves as a wake-up call, demanding concerted efforts to mitigate the deadly fallout of Montreal’s winter woes for its senior residents.
