Living Safely, Aging Well ─ A Guide to Preventing Injuries at Home

As we age, our sense of balance and our vision, hearing, and cognition become less sharp. These changes greatly increase our risk of injury. In Living Safely, Aging Well, nationally recognized safety expert Dorothy A. Drago spells out how to prevent unintentional injury while cooking, gardening, sleeping, driving—and just walking around the house.

In the first part of the book Drago describes the causes of injuries by type—falls, burns, poisoning, and asphyxia—and explains how to decrease the risk of each. She then explores the home environment room by room, pointing out potential hazards and explaining how to avoid them, for example, by installing night lights, eliminating glass coffee tables, and using baby monitors. Lively line drawings make it easy for readers to visualize risks and implement prevention techniques. Living Safely, Aging Well, pays special attention to hazards encountered by people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. A chapter devoted to health literacy helps people and caregivers make the best use of the medical care system.

Dorothy A. Drago, M.P.H., owns Drago Expert Services, which evaluates consumer product safety, designs safety communication, and provides litigation support. She previously worked as a senior analyst for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and is author of From Crib to Kindergarten: The Essential Child Safety Guide, also published by Johns Hopkins.