This article argues that medical hegemony has constructed a dominant discourse around falls in later life. This medical dominance has subjected the fall to randomized control trials (RCTs) in an attempt to evaluate post-fall interventions especially in older populations. However, there has been a paucity of literature from any discipline other than medicine. This article attempts to rectify this imbalance by utilizing status passage and preferred identities as sociological theories that can offer insights into falls. First, it is suggested that status passage offers a useful theoretical starting point to develop critical insights into ‘what it means to fall in later life’. Second, analogies are drawn from the work of Charmaz in attempting to understand the role of preferred identities after a fall. Finally, it is suggested that the fall is a powerful metaphor that perpetuates the homogeneous view of decremental decline in older age which serves to reinforce ageism within health and welfare agencies.
Bennett, G. and Ebrahim, S. (1992). The essentials of health care in old age. London: Edward Arnold.
2.
Borkan, J. , Quirk, M. and Sullivan, M. (1991). Finding meaning after the fall: Injury narratives from elderly hip fracture patients. Social Science and Medicine, 33(8), 947–957.
3.
Charmaz, K. (1987). Struggling for a self: Identity levels of the chronically ill. Research in the Sociology of Health Care, 6, 283–321.
4.
Corbin, J.M. and Strauss, A. (1988). Unending work and care: Managing chronic illness at home. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
5.
Cwikel, J. , Fried, A.V. and Galinsky, D. (1990). Falls and psychosocial factors among community dwelling elderly persons: A review and integration of findings from Israel. Public Health Review, 17, 39–50.
6.
Department of Health (DoH) (1993). Key area handbook accidents. London: HMSO.
7.
Downton, J. (1993). Falls in the elderly. London: Edward Arnold.
8.
Garfinkel, H. (1956). Conditions of successful degradation ceremonies. American Journal of Sociology, 61, 420–424.
9.
Glaser, B.G. and Strauss, A.L. (1971a). Status passage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
10.
Glaser, B.G. and Strauss, A.L. (1971b). Awareness contexts and social interaction. American Sociological Review, 29(5), 61–67.
11.
Green, J. (1995). Risk, rationality and misfortune: Towards a sociology of accidents. PhD thesis, United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals.
12.
Grimley Evans, J. (1997). A correct compassion: The medical response to an ageing society. Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 31(6), 674–684.
13.
Howland, J. , Peterson, E.W., Levin, W.C., Fried, L., Pordon, D. and Bak, S. (1993). Fear of falling among the community dwelling elderly. Journal of Aging and Health, 5(2), 229–243.
14.
Hurd, P.D. , Bluestein, M. and Hazlett, J. (1986). Falls, medications, and the attribution of responsibility. Abstract published in the proceedings of the American Gerontological Society Meetings.
15.
Isaacs, B. , Livingston, M. and Neville, Y. (1972). Survival of the unfittest. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
16.
Kingston, P. (1998). Older people and falls: A randomised trial of health visitor intervention. PhD thesis, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire.
17.
Kingston, P. and Penhale, B. (1997). Issues in the sphere of elder abuse and neglect: The role of education. Nurse Education Today, 17, 418–425.
18.
Kirkwood, T. (1999). Time of our lives. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
19.
Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
20.
McKee, K.J. (1998). The body drop: A framework for understanding recovery from falls in older people. Generations Review, 8, 11–14.
21.
McKee, K.J. , Orbell, S. and Radley, K.A. (1999). Predicting perceived recovered activity in older people after a fall. Disability and Rehabilitation, 21, 555–562.
22.
Murphy J. and Isaacs, B. (1982). The post-fall syndrome: A study of 36 elderly patients. Gerontology, 28, 265–270.
23.
Nagy, W. (1974). Figurative patterns and redundancy in the lexicon. PhD thesis, University of California at San Diego.
24.
Nolan, M. (1997). Longterm care. In I. Philp (Ed.), Outcome assessment for healthcare in elderly people, p. 147-147. London: Farrand Press.
25.
Robertson, A. (1991). The politics of Alzheimer’s disease: A case study in apocalyptic demography. In M. Minkler and C. Estes (Eds.), Critical perspectives on aging: The political and moral economy of growing old. New York: Baywood.
26.
Shilling, C. (1993). The body and social theory. London: Sage.
27.
Sontag, S. (1991). Illness as metaphor/AIDS and its metaphors. London: Penguin.
28.
Stacey, M. (1994). The power of lay knowledge: A personal view. In J. Popay and G. Williams (Eds.), Researching the people’s health, pp. 85–99. London: Routledge.
29.
Turner, B. (1992). Regulating bodies. London: Routledge.
30.
Vellas, B. , Cayla, F., Bocquet, H., de Pemille, F. and Aldarede, J.L. (1987). Prospective study of restriction of activity in old people after falls. Age and Ageing, 16, 189–193.
31.
Woodward, K. (1991). Aging and its discontents. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
32.
Yardley, L. (1997). Disorientation in the (post) modern world. In L. Yardley (Ed.), Material discourses of health and illness, pp. 109–131. London: Routledge.
