Watching their steps

The faithfulness of these seniors has created the largest US database with detailed information about falls among older adults, which is helping scientists gain new insights into the causes of falls - one of the most dreaded and costly aspects of aging - and how to prevent them.

“Being in the study made me realize how unsafely I was living,’’ said Komins of her decision to move.

“A neighbor in my old neighborhood had fallen down stairs when she went to do the wash and laid there nine hours before someone found her,’’ she said.

Each year, one in every three adults age 65 and older falls, according to federal statistics. As many as 30 percent of those who fall can suffer severe injuries, such as hip fractures and head traumas, which can make it hard to live independently and can increase the risk for an early death. Eighty-one percent of fall-related deaths are among people over 65, federal data show.

As the number of graying baby boomers grows, so too will the medical costs associated with falls, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which projects the $19 billion in direct medical costs from falls in 2000 will jump to nearly $55 billion by 2020 in medical, disability, and other costs.

People with the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis are especially vulnerable, and specialists say that efforts to prevent falls may be as effective in protecting them against bone fractures as medications aimed at building bones.

Yet “all falls are not alike,’’ said Dr. Lewis Lipsitz, a Harvard Medical School professor and chief of gerontology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who launched the database and study dubbed MOBILIZE six years ago.