Use the CDC’s STEADI screening questions to check fall-risk factors at home — for yourself or someone you care for — then see how the clinical tools nurses and physical therapists use actually work, and what to bring to your next appointment.

Not sure where to start? The 3-question quick check takes under a minute and is the entry point the CDC and the American Geriatrics Society recommend. The 12-question check gives a fuller picture across strength, balance, medications, and mood. If a clinician has already timed a Timed Up & Go (TUG) test, you can enter that result for interpretation. Each check reports separately — they measure different things and are never combined into one number.

Screening is not prediction — what a fall-risk “score” can and can’t tell you

A screen (like the questions above) checks for known risk factors and tells you whether a fall-risk conversation with a professional is worthwhile. A multifactorial assessment is what that professional then does: gait and balance testing, medication review, vision, feet and footwear, blood pressure on standing, and home hazards.

What no tool can do is predict whether a particular person will fall. This matters enough that the UK’s national guideline (NICE NG249, April 2025) now explicitly tells clinicians not to use falls risk prediction tools to predict an individual’s risk — and to focus on identifying risk factors and acting on them instead. That’s why this page’s results name the factors your answers flagged rather than giving you a percentage or a “low/medium/high” label.

What is a fall risk assessment?

A fall risk assessment is a structured evaluation of how likely a person is to fall, based on factors such as fall history, balance, leg strength, medications, vision, and home hazards. Screening questionnaires identify who needs one; the full assessment is done by a healthcare professional.

How the clinical fall-risk tools compare — and why we use STEADI here

Why this page no longer uses the Morse Fall Scale

For years this page offered an interactive Morse Fall Scale calculator, and “Morse fall scale calculator” is still how many visitors find it. We retired it deliberately.

The Morse Fall Scale (Morse, 1989) is a hospital tool: nurses score a patient’s fall history, secondary diagnoses, walking aid, IV line (“IV/heparin lock”), gait, and mental status, usually on admission and at shift changes. Several of its six items require clinical observation or chart data, and one of them — the IV item — has no meaning for a person at home. It has never been validated as a consumer self-assessment, and hospitals set their own score cutoffs rather than using one universal band.

What score on the Morse Fall Scale is high risk?

In most published hospital protocols, a Morse Fall Scale score of 45 or higher is treated as high risk, roughly 25–44 as moderate, and 0–24 as lower risk — but the scale’s author recommends each facility set its own cutoffs, and the bands only apply to hospital inpatients scored by nursing staff, not to self-assessment at home.

If you’re a nurse or student looking for the inpatient tools, the comparison table above summarizes Morse, Hendrich II, Johns Hopkins, Hester Davis, and STRATIFY. For checking fall risk at home, the CDC STEADI questions above are the validated, intended-for-you option. For a deeper walkthrough of how professional assessment works, see our caregiver’s guide to fall risk assessment at home.

What actually raises fall risk

Factors you can often change: leg weakness and low activity; balance problems; medications that cause drowsiness or dizziness (sleep aids, some mood and blood-pressure medicines); vision problems; unsafe footwear; home hazards — loose rugs, poor lighting, clutter, no grab bars; rushing to the bathroom at night; low vitamin D.

Factors you can’t change (but can plan around): age; a previous fall; chronic conditions such as Parkinson’s, dementia, stroke, arthritis, or neuropathy; recent surgery or hospital stay.

More than one in four adults 65+ falls each year, and falls are the leading cause of injury hospitalization among Canadian seniors — but falling is not a normal or inevitable part of aging. Most of the factors above respond to strength-and-balance exercise, medication review, vision care, and home changes (this is the multifactorial approach every current guideline recommends; exercise carries the strongest evidence — USPSTF Grade B).

Screened at risk? What to discuss — and with whom

• Doctor or nurse practitioner: your screening summary; a multifactorial falls assessment; blood pressure on standing; vitamin D; vision and hearing checks.
• Pharmacist or prescriber: every medicine and supplement, especially sleep aids and mood medicines. Never stop or change a medicine on your own.
• Physical therapist: strength-and-balance programs (the single best-evidenced fall-prevention intervention); gait and mobility testing like the TUG.
• Occupational therapist: a room-by-room home-safety assessment, bathroom equipment, and safe transfer setups.

Print your screening summary with the button above and bring it to the appointment.

The CDC’s mobility tests (TUG, chair stand, balance) — don’t test alone

The STEADI program pairs its questionnaire with three short physical tests: the Timed Up & Go, the 30-Second Chair Stand (how many times you can stand from a chair in 30 seconds without using your hands), and the 4-Stage Balance Test (holding progressively harder stances for 10 seconds). They’re quick — but every one of them involves standing, walking, or balancing at the edge of ability, which is exactly when falls happen. Do them with a clinician, or at home only with a capable adult within arm’s reach, a sturdy chair, good lighting, regular footwear, and your usual walking aid. If a clinician has timed your TUG, you can enter the result in the tool above.

Home and bedroom fall-safety checklist

No score here on purpose — home hazards add to personal risk factors but don’t convert into points. Walk each room with this list:

• Floors & paths: remove loose rugs or tape them down; clear cords and clutter from walking routes; keep pet beds/bowls out of pathways.
• Lighting: night-lights between bed and bathroom; a lamp reachable from bed; light switches at room entrances.
• Bathroom: grab bars in the shower and beside the toilet; non-slip mats; consider a shower chair.
• Stairs: handrails on both sides; nothing stored on steps; good lighting top and bottom.
• Bedroom: a bed height where feet rest flat on the floor with hips near knee level; a clear, lit path to the bathroom; a phone or call device within reach — see our guides to bedroom modifications for dementia and reducing nighttime bed-exit risk without restraints.
• Footwear: firm, low-heeled, non-slip soles — not loose slippers or socks on hard floors.

An occupational therapist can do this professionally (tools like Home FAST exist for exactly this). Canada’s Public Health Agency publishes a free Safe Living Guide; the CDC publishes a home fall-prevention checklist — both are linked in Sources.

Where a home hospital bed fits into fall prevention — honestly

No bed — ours included — prevents falls. What an adjustable bed can honestly contribute:

• Safer transfers. The best height for getting in and out is feet flat on the floor with knees near 90° — for most people that is not a bed’s lowest position, which is why height adjustability matters. (More: how low should a bed go for fall prevention?)
• Less distance if a fall from bed happens. A bed lowered for sleep may reduce the distance of a fall from bed. It does not eliminate falls or guarantee less injury.
• Bed rails deserve caution, not default use. Rails can help with repositioning, but they carry documented entrapment risk and climbing-over risk — the FDA notes most patients can be in bed safely without rails, and rail/mattress mismatch creates dangerous gaps. A fall-risk score is never, by itself, a reason to add rails. Read our candid guides to using bed rails safely and the seven entrapment risk zones before deciding — ideally with an occupational therapist.

If bedroom setup is part of your fall-prevention plan, you can learn about adjustable home hospital beds or browse safety accessories — or talk with your care team first, which is what we’d recommend.

Frequently asked questions

Methodology, review, and updates

Sources and further reading

1. CDC — STEADI: Older Adult Fall Prevention (program materials, Stay Independent brochure, TUG / chair-stand / balance test instructions). cdc.gov/steadi
2. NICE — NG249: Falls: assessment and prevention in older people and people 50+ at higher risk (29 Apr 2025).
3. US Preventive Services Task Force — Falls Prevention in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Interventions (JAMA, 4 Jun 2024).
4. Montero-Odasso M, et al. — World Guidelines for Falls Prevention and Management for Older Adults. Age and Ageing 2022;51(9).
5. Rubenstein LZ, et al. — Validating an evidence-based, self-rated fall risk questionnaire. J Safety Res 2011;42(6).
6. Public Health Agency of Canada — Falls prevention for seniors; The Safe Living Guide.
7. FDA — Adult Portable Bed Rail Safety; Hospital Bed System Dimensional and Assessment Guidance.
8. Health Canada — Adult bed rail safety advisories.
9. Morse JM, Morse RM, Tylko SJ — Development of a scale to identify the fall-prone patient. Can J Aging 1989;8(4).
10. NCOA — Falls Free CheckUp (related external screening resource). ncoa.org