Significance of STEADI Screening in Early Identification of Geriatric Patients with Undiagnosed Depression

Each year, the health care system loses billions of dollars due to falls in the geriatric population, causing significant morbidity and mortality. Clinical depression is relatively uncommon among older US adults, but depressive symptomatology has been identified as a major risk factor for falls. It was observed by the geriatric clinical practitioners that many of the patients answered “yes” to the depression question in the STEADI Fall Screening questionnaire but were not screened for depression, and those with a formal diagnosis were not treated appropriately for the severity of depression.