MEND Fall Risk Check
Fall risk: what raises it, and what lowers it
A free, three-minute self-assessment built on the CDC’s STEADI screener, scored entirely in your browser. Below it: how the score works, and the four changes that move it most.
What a fall-risk score actually tells you
A fall-risk score is not a prediction. It is a way of noticing which of the things that make falls more likely are true for you right now — and most of them are things that can be changed. That is the useful part. A high score is not a verdict about getting older; it is a list of what to bring up at your next appointment.
Roughly a quarter of adults over 65 report a fall each year, and the majority of those falls cause no injury at all. The reason screening matters is not that falling is common — it is that the drivers are unusually responsive to ordinary, unglamorous fixes.
How this check is scored
The clinical backbone is the CDC’s STEADI “Stay Independent” questionnaire — 12 statements, 14 possible points, in the public domain and used here as published. A score of 4 or more is the threshold at which clinicians begin screening for falls. STEADI is a screening instrument, not a diagnostic one, and it is validated for adults aged 65 and over.
| Score | Band | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0–3 | Lower risk | Below the STEADI screening threshold. Worth repeating if anything changes. |
| 4–7 | Increased risk | At or above the threshold a clinician would act on. |
| 8–13 | High risk | Several drivers present at once. |
| 14+ | Very high risk | Worth raising promptly rather than at the next routine visit. |
This check adds three blocks beyond STEADI — medication classes, withdrawal or detox state, and home hazards. Those are clinically motivated but they are our own calibration, not a validated published scale. Anything derived from them is shown as a relative index and never as a probability. We would rather say that plainly than imply more precision than the instrument has.
Every answer is scored in your browser. Nothing you enter is transmitted, stored, or attached to you — there is no account, and the server never sees a single response.
The four things that change the number most
Ask a pharmacist to review every medicine
Certain drug classes — sedatives, some antidepressants, blood-pressure medicines, anything causing drowsiness or light-headedness on standing — are together the best-documented modifiable driver of falls. Taking four or more medicines raises risk further, independent of which ones they are. A pharmacist will do this review free, and it needs the over-the-counter items and supplements too, because those are the ones people forget to mention.
Have your eyes checked once a year
Depth perception and contrast sensitivity fade gradually enough that people compensate without noticing. Bifocals and progressives are worth raising specifically — they blur the ground at exactly the distance stairs occupy.
Strength and balance work, not general exercise
The evidence favours programmes that specifically challenge balance — standing on one leg, heel-to-toe walking, tai chi — over walking alone. Walking is good for many things; on its own it moves fall risk very little.
Fix the two rooms where it happens
Bathrooms and stairs account for a disproportionate share. Grab bars beside the toilet and in the shower, a light within reach of the bed, both-sides stair rails, and removing loose rugs are cheap, one-off, and boring — which is exactly why they get postponed.
Why the global panel is there
The panel beneath your result draws live from the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory: age-standardised death rates from falls, per 100,000 people, across 189 member states. It is there for scale, not for alarm. Fall mortality varies several-fold between countries with comparable wealth and life expectancy, which is the clearest available evidence that these outcomes track prevention and care rather than age alone.
This is not a diagnosis. It is an informational screening tool and it cannot account for your medical history. Nothing here replaces a conversation with a clinician or pharmacist. If you have fallen recently, feel unsteady, or are worried about someone, that conversation is the next step regardless of what any score says.
Sources: CDC STEADI “Stay Independent” questionnaire (public domain). World Health Organization Global Health Observatory, indicator SA_0000001442, age-standardised fall death rates per 100,000 population.