Check your parent’s risk
Tap Yes or No for each statement. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere; it stays on this screen.
1. I have fallen in the past year.A past fall is the strongest single warning sign of another one.
2. I use or have been advised to use a cane or walker to get around safely.Needing a mobility aid means balance or strength is already limited.
3. Sometimes I feel unsteady when I am walking.Unsteadiness shows up first on wet, hard floors.
4. I steady myself by holding onto furniture when walking at home.People who do this will grab towel bars and soap dishes too, and those are not built to hold a person.
5. I am worried about falling.Fear of falling leads people to move less, which weakens legs and raises risk further.
6. I need to push with my hands to stand up from a chair.Weak leg muscles are a major reason people fall.
7. I have some trouble stepping up onto a curb.If a curb is hard, a tub wall is harder.
8. I often have to rush to the toilet.Rushing, especially at night, raises the chance of tripping.
9. I have lost some feeling in my feet.Numb feet make it harder to sense slippery floors and hot water.
10. I take medicine that sometimes makes me feel light-headed or more tired than usual.Some medicines affect balance and alertness.
11. I take medicine to help me sleep or improve my mood.These medicines can raise the chance of a fall, especially at night.
12. I often feel sad or depressed.Feeling low is linked to falling, in part because people move less.
Answer the questions to see the score.
This checklist is a screening tool, not a diagnosis. Share the score with your parent’s doctor, who can do a fuller fall-risk assessment.
What to do with the score
- 4 or more points, or any fall this year: book a visit with their doctor and bring this list. Ask whether an occupational therapist can do a home safety visit.
- Under 4 points: good news for now. Recheck once a year, or sooner after a fall, an illness or a new medicine.
- Either way: the bathroom is where most home bathroom injuries happen in or near the tub or shower. A CDC study of emergency visits found 81% of bathroom injuries were caused by falls. Grab bars, a nonslip floor and a seat are worth doing at any score.
When stepping over a tub wall has become the hard part, see the warning signs, then how to bring it up and how families pay for it.
Sources
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, STEADI, Stay Independent brochure (checklist statements and scoring).
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Older Adult Falls Data.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nonfatal Bathroom Injuries Among Persons Aged ≥15 Years, United States, 2008 (MMWR, 2011).
- U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Avoiding Tap Water Scalds (Publication 5098).
Checked October 17, 2026. The “what it means” notes and bathroom suggestions are ours, not the CDC’s.