This study examines whether participation in gardening predicts reduced fall risk and performance on balance and gait-speed measures in older adults. Data on adults age 65 and older (N = 3,237) from the Health and Retirement Study and Consumption and Activities Mail Survey were analyzed. Participants who spent 1 hr or more gardening in the past week were defined as gardeners, resulting in a total of 1,585 gardeners and 1,652 nongardeners. Independent t tests, chi square, and regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between gardening and health outcomes. Findings indicate that gardeners reported significantly better balance and gait speed and had fewer chronic conditions and functional limitations than nongardeners. Significantly fewer gardeners than nongardeners reported a fall in the past 2 yr. The findings suggest that gardening may be a potential activity to incorporate into future fall-prevention programs.

The number of insomnia symptoms predicts 2-year fall risk in older adults. Taking physician-recommended sleep medications increases the risks for falling in older adults, irrespective of the presence of insomnia symptoms. Future efforts should be directed toward treating insomnia symptoms, and managing and selecting sleep medications effectively to decrease the risk of falling in older adults.

Although cognitive measures at baseline were significantly associated with falls and recurrent falls at follow-up, these measures did not predict falling after considering known risk factors of falls and psychomotor speed. Thus, it may be that simple measures of psychomotor speed are more salient predictors of falls than cognitive measures.

The consequences of falling can complicate the course of cancer treatment. Measures of functional limitations and balance have the potential to be quick and useful clinical tools to detect falling among seniors with cancer living in communities.