Nobody expects a fall to be the thing that changes everything. But for older adults, it often is.
What most families don’t realise is that a significant number of those falls start in the feet.
Foot pain roughly doubles the odds of a fall in older adults. The mechanism is straightforward: when your parent’s feet hurt, they change the way they walk. They shuffle, they shorten their stride, they compensate in ways they probably aren’t even aware of. That altered gait makes a trip or a slip far more likely, and the consequences of a fall in your seventies or eighties are rarely minor.
Bunions, hammertoes, and weakened arches are all linked to higher fall risk. So is reduced sensation in the feet, which is common in older adults with diabetes. If your parent can’t feel where their foot is landing, their body’s ability to self-correct in a stumble is compromised. The CDC lists poor foot health and ill-fitting shoes alongside muscle weakness and vision problems as modifiable fall risk factors, meaning they can actually be addressed.
A podiatrist approaches this practically. They assess how your parent is walking, identify what’s contributing to instability, and prescribe custom orthotics or recommend supportive footwear. They can also provide exercises to strengthen the foot and ankle and improve the body’s sense of position. Research suggests that podiatric intervention can reduce fall risk by around 36% in at-risk patients. That figure tends to get people’s attention.
The nail and skin care element matters here too. Caregivers on eldercare forums frequently note that overgrown or infected nails cause enough pain to alter a parent’s gait, a problem that goes unnoticed until mobility has already declined. Getting the feet properly maintained removes one more variable from an already complicated picture.
There’s also a footwear conversation that general doctors rarely have time for. Many older adults are walking in shoes that no longer fit properly, that provide no real support, or that they’ve held onto because they’re familiar. A podiatrist will look at what your parent is wearing, ask about it, and make specific recommendations. Something as unglamorous as the right pair of shoes with the right orthotics has been enough to restore comfortable walking for people who had been compensating for years.
Falls in older adults can start a chain of events that’s genuinely hard to recover from. A fractured hip, a hospital stay, reduced confidence, less movement, faster decline. Catching the foot problems that contribute to falls is one of the few genuinely preventable parts of that chain.
If your parent has recently fallen, or if you’ve noticed changes in the way they walk, a podiatrist referral is one of the more sensible things you can do right now.